RYAAY Ryanair Holdings PLC

By Anthony O. Goriainoff

The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority said Wednesday that it was banning a Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYA.LN) advertising campaign and that it mustn't appear again in its current forms.

The regulatory body said the budget airline's September 2019 media campaign that claimed it has the lowest carbon emissions of any major airline in Europe was misleading since Ryanair failed to substantiate its environmental claims.

ASA said the ads failed to factor in seating density--the number of seats per plane--which it considers to be significant information as it helps consumers understand the basis of the claim.

Furthermore, the authority said that since there isn't a "commonly recognized definition" of a major airline, it considers consumers would understand this claim to simply mean those airlines they had heard of, "particularly given that the headline claim gave no indication that the comparison was not marketwide."

"We told Ryanair...to ensure that when making environmental claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and to ensure that the basis of those claims were made clear," ASA said.

Ryanair said in a statement that it had successfully run the campaign in 10 countries across Europe and that it had made minor adjustments for the U.K. at the request of the relevant approval bodies.

"Ryanair is delighted with its latest environmental advertising campaign, which communicates a hugely important message for our customers," the company said.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2020 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)

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