Sony and GAME have been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority for the way in which they handled a promotion that let a limited number of fans purchase a special edition 20th Anniversary Edition PS4.
Six people complained to the ASA after it was discovered that users were able to gain an unfair advantage in getting hold of one of the consoles by bypassing certain elements of the promotion and sharing a link to the required form with others.
The promotion was only supposed to offer the first 100 eligible entrants each day the opportunity to purchase a console on a first-come, first-served basis after solving a clue provided by Sony. But with the link freely shareable, the ASA found that anybody “who had attempted to enter by solving the clue were likely to have been disadvantaged and therefore unnecessarily disappointed”.
The ASA also found that five customers were able to purchase two consoles against the promotion’s terms and conditions. Only 12,300 units of the 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 were made available worldwide.
“Game said that it had become apparent that five customers had been able to purchase two consoles during the promotion, albeit on different days,” the ASA’s report reads. “They said they had stringent processes in place to ensure customers could not purchase more than one console during each day’s promotion, but that such processes had not been sufficient to withstand the unexpectedly high volume of entries, nor been designed in a way that enabled entries to be viewed across the entire promotion period.”
The ASA ruled that because of the two companies’ failings “the promotion had caused unnecessary disappointment”, concluding “that it had not been administered fairly, and therefore that it had breached the Code.”
Neither GAME or Sony face any significant action from the ASA, though, with the regulator simply telling the two firms to ensure that future promotions are “administered fairly” to avoid “causing unnecessary disappointment to participants”.
Source: asa.org.uk
