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THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS Authority for Ireland (ASAI) has upheld a complaint made against Lidl over the amount of cashmere in a jumper it sold.
The shop listed the “classic and elegant” men’s jumper as “fine knit cashmere”. It cost €16.99 and came in four different colours.
The ASAI notes the man who complained said, while the cashmere claim was unqualified, he was “surprised to see from the packaging that the jumper contained only 3% cashmere”.
Lidl said its description of the jumper was fair as the item in question was fine knit and contained cashmere.
The shop said the description reflected the retail industry norm for items containing such materials. Lidl said it never referred to the garment as being 100% cashmere and its packaging clearly stated the percentage of cashmere it contained.
‘Not misleading’
With their response, Lidl provided examples of other items containing certain materials and how they were described by the manufacturer – such as pictures of a throw described as a ‘cashmere throw’ which contained 20% cashmere and a jumper described as a ‘lambswool’ which contained 50% lambswool.
The advertisers said they had not misled their customers at any point. They considered the description of their product to be fair and accurate, particularly given the item’s packaging and price.
The ASAI examined the use of the description ‘cashmere’ in a range of advertising by other retailers. It noted that where the product was not pure cashmere the description made this clear, for example by stating it was cashmere and cotton or cashmere and merino.
The organisation found Lidl’s advertising should not appear in the same format again.
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He only went in for a sliced pan. Left with ‘cashmere’ jumper, 2 fishing rods, a hedge trimmer and a 24 piece socket set.
@Jamie Roche: and waited haft an hour at the till to pay for them!
@David: while listening to the constant beep beep beep from various checkouts
Once you hear them they can’t be unheard
@Jamie Roche: https://youtu.be/Jxl8P1fNT9Y
@Jamie: Beeps from checkouts (plural).
That implies more than one checkout open – are you sure you were in Lidl?
@Alan Lawlor: yeah lidl have 10 checkouts but 7 are just for show
Next you’ll be telling me that the drill I bought for 30 quid isn’t as good as the DeWalt one my spark friend has!!!
The guy that complained needs to got out a bit more !
@David Conroy: He had intended to hence the purchase of a jumper
They leave liddle clues in the small print!
@winston smith: they leave liddle clues in the price.
If the price looks too good to be true, then it probably isn’t
@Alan Lawlor:
I that no you mean ‘then it probably is’
@Nick Allen:
Think
What does he expect? It’s lidl, not ******* Armani.
@Rodan: Although you wouldn’t break the bank on that either these days…
How do you even make a jumper just 3% cashmere!? It’s impressive really..
@Rick Mooney: only the label was Cashmere !
Extremely interesting and worthwhile article!
Lidl Irish Cheese with all the flavours of Ireland, Made in Czech Republic
“A different but also shocked man” … No way
He was having difficulty paying mere cash for real cash mere!!!
Oasis whats in the “full bodied red wine”
My pet hate is the scratchy fabric they make the washing instructions out of. I always have to cut them off jumpers as they irritate my neck and sometimes this can damage the jumper as they are sewn in. I asked the ASAI before how jumpers can be described as 100% cotton when the label is not cotton but they didn’t follow it up probably because it is so common in the clothing industry whereas here they could just target one particular jumper in one store. Still, it’s no less annoying. I also hate advertisements for broadband etc that say EUR40 per month in sky high letters but then “reverts to EUR90 per month after six months” written in the small print when it’s a 2 year contract that are locked in to. They should only be allowed to advertise the average cost per month over contract.
Now really,who in their right mind believes that they are getting a cashmere sweater for 16.99?
D4 heads sipping a glass of water in cafe en seine wearing a lidl cashmere sweater,secretly bought in Lidl!
Will certainly not stop me from shopping in Lidl
Moron needs to get a life. It is not America we live in. He also complained to kettle manufacturers that the water boils
He is correct to complain on principle and the regulator agreed. Organisations need to be held to account when they mislead, I wish we didn’t have such an unhealthy relationship with criticism in this country. Attitudes like yours are exactly why so many things are overpriced and underperforming in this country, because people are willing to put up with less.
“A different but also shocked man” lol very reminiscent of the Viz . All you needed was to add ” recently ” at the end of the sentence lol
Brain is as sensitive as his skin but still had the neck to complain
I find the ruling ridiculous. If it said “cashmere”, I, as customer, would expect it be made of 100% cashmere! therefore Lidl should have been found guilty of premeditated misleading!
What’s the man in the picture shocked about? Something big must have happened him too
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