Rival complaint gets Victoria Plum advert pulled

The ongoing battle between cross-Pennines retailer rivals Victoria Plum and Victorian Plumbing has moved into the realms of advertising.

Victorian Plumbing has now flagged one it its rival’s website adverts to the Advertising Standards Authority

The Victoria Plum advert in question proclaimed up to 60% off on “Big Brand Names” with brands quoted in the ad including Laura Ashley, The Bath Co, Mira Showers, Jacuzzi, Mode Bathrooms and Triton.

Victorian Plumbing pointed out that the 60% off appeared to only apply to Victoria Plum-exclusive products.

The ASA found that 25 of the 250 items offered for sale were offered at 60%. These 25 items were either The Bath Co or Mode Bathroom products, which were only available from Victoria Plum. The rest of the discounts ranged from 59% to 1%.

The ASA ruled that the advert should not appear again in its current form. It said that it could be reasonably expected that a significant proportion of their products would be available with a 60% discount and that those discounts would be across a number of recognisable brand names which could include, but would not be exclusively, in-house or partnered brands.

Hull-based Victoria Plum and Merseyside’s Victorian Plumbing have been at loggerheads for some time now, having embarked on a legal battle over keyword search terms which came to a head last year.

The High Court ruled in favour of Yorkshire’s Victoria Plum, and heard that Victorian Plumbing was spending “hundreds of thousands of pounds” per year on advertising that had been found liable for trademark infringement using pay per click advertising on Google.

Victorian Plumbing subsequently applied for an appeal, calling the ruling “extremely unfair”.

Victoria Plum has been facing difficulties of its own after it saw profits plunge into the red, posting pre-tax losses of £12.5m for the year to February 2016 from profits of £1.9m the year before.