Brendan Burgess
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Pricewatch: Are you accidentally paying for a loyalty programme and what can be done to stop it?
Some people have been giving monthly sums of €15 to Complete Savings and getting nothing in return
One of the reasons it is worth revisiting this story this week is because the company behind completesavings.ie – Web Loyalty – made headlines in the UK when the advertising watchdog there announced it was banning pop-up ads that offer customers cashback.
The British Advertising Standards Authority said it had found a number of adverts run by Web Loyalty to be misleading.
It noted that the offending pop-ups appeared after consumers bought products online and were offering cashback of about £20.
The ads said shoppers could click on a link “to claim the above reward, credited onto your card, when you next place an order” with the retailer.
Text in a smaller font added that “By tapping above, you can join our partner programme for £18/month and claim your reward”.
The advertising authority said it was unclear that the pop-ups which featured on multiple well-known sites were coming from a third party, and that by clicking “continue” some people may have been under the impression they were finalising their transaction with the original retailer.
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What about the Republic of Ireland?
We sent a query to the Irish advertising watchdog and we received a short response that said: “The Advertising Standards Authority has not received any complaints relating to your query.”