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The ASA has recently issued a ruling that emphasises that detailed terms and conditions will not get you out of trouble if your headlines are wrong.
A gambling operator ran an in‑app banner promoting a "Marble Race Live" offer. The headline stated: "Enjoy £40 on us! When you opt in and stake £20." The small print immediately beneath stated: "Min. £40 stake on Marble Race Live."
The complainant challenged whether the headline claim was misleading, because they understood that a minimum stake of £40 was required.
The promoter explained that the £20 figure was introduced by a typographical error during a manual edit while resizing the creative. The error affected a single placement, shown in-app to a targeted group for a short time. Users who clicked through saw the full and accurate terms before opting in.
The ASA upheld the complaint. It thought that consumers would reasonably interpret the headline as promising eligibility at a £20 stake. Because the actual requirement was £40, the ad was misleading.
This isn't exactly a surprising outcome – it was a clear mistake and the promoter held their hands up. However, it does illustrate a common problem with offers and promotions. You can have the most beautifully crafted set of terms and conditions and present them perfectly, but these won't help if you make a mistake in the main copy or – perhaps more common – the promotional messaging plays fast and loose and exaggerates an aspect of the offer or promotion. This sometimes happens with prize promotions, where the terms and conditions are clear about the limitations of a prize, but the headlines call it a "VIP" or "exclusive" experience when there's nothing VIP or exclusive about it.
In this ruling, the ASA emphasised the fine line between qualifying and contradicting a claim. Where a supposed qualification introduces a more onerous condition than the headline implies, consumers are misled before they ever read the small print. It does not matter if an ad has a limited exposure or if there is a typo. So, the lesson is: do not rely on your terms and conditions to fix mistakes in your advertising. If the headline is wrong, the ad is wrong.
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