ASA refers Ryanair to OFT

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has responded to news that Ryanair is referring the standards body to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) by confirming it has already lodged a complaint against the low-cost carrier.

The ASA has referred Ryanair to the OFT for “persistent failure to abide by the Code of Advertising Practice (CAP)”. The ASA will publish details of its referral next week but it is understood the action follows a series of adjudications by the ASA that have found against Ryanair.

Ryainair has hit back by submitting its own complaint to the OFT, accusing the ASA of “bias and unfair procedures”. The OFT, which received the referral by the ASA last month, says it is considering what action is “appropriate and proportionate in the circumstances”.

In the past two years, a number the airline’s advertisements have been found to be misleading or factually incorrect by the ASA and recently, in the case of a press ad featuring a scantily-clad model posing in a school room, offensive.

Ryanair’s formal complaint to the OFT, claims the ASA has demonstrated a “repeated lack of independence, impartiality or fairness where Ryanair is concerned by making factually inaccurate and untrue findings (in some cases) to totally baseless and unsubstantiated alleged complaints”.