UK high street giants under fire for ‘misleading’ customers

John Lewis, Boots and Debenhams are among the UK retailers found to have breached advertising standards during Black Friday 2025, after a review by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concluded that several promotions exaggerated savings or failed to represent genuine reductions.

The ASA identified two ads from John Lewis promoting discounted MacBook and ASUS laptops as misrepresenting price drops.

One ad offered a MacBook Air for £699, claiming a £150 saving, but the regulator found “insufficient” evidence to support the laptop’s established selling price of £849.

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It noted that third-party price tracking websites suggested the product had only been sold for £849 for one day in July 2025.

Claims of a £450 saving on the ASUS laptop were similarly unsubstantiated.

A John Lewis spokeswoman said: “Our Never Knowingly Undersold price promise means we lower thousands of prices each week to match competitors – and this activity intensifies during the busy Black Friday period.

“While we always strive to ensure the price claims in our advertising are accurate and compliant, we apologise for two errors which weren’t picked up when we lowered our prices to match others.”

Debenhams, which used to have a shop in Oxford city centre, was also found to have misled consumers with two ads, one claiming “44 per cent savings” on home products and another advertising “21 per cent savings” on a range of items including a hair styling tool.

Boots was criticised for a promotion on a Hugo Boss fragrance, which it claimed was reduced from £80 to £60.

The ASA found the product had only been sold at the higher price for 21 days when it was first launched, failing to justify the advertised saving.

A Boots spokeswoman said: “We know that our customers enjoy making genuine savings on their shopping at Boots, and last year we offered discounts on more than 20,000 products across the Black Friday period.

“We have robust measures in place to make sure that our promotions comply with the relevant laws and associated guidance, and we have taken learnings from this individual case of human error identified by the ASA.”

The ASA said all the ads breached its guidelines, as none provided sufficient evidence that the claimed savings reflected a genuine reduction from the usual selling price.

The investigation was part of an ongoing sweep by the regulator, which now uses AI-powered monitoring to identify potential breaches.

Emily Henwood, operations manager at the ASA, said: “People rightly expect the deals they see around Black Friday to be genuine.

“These rulings send a clear message to retailers and brands that promotional events aren’t exempt from the rules.

“We expect advertisers to be able to demonstrate that the discounts they promote represent real savings so that people aren’t misled.”