Banned Octopus advert falsely tells customers they can buy a £500 heat pump
The online advert boasted that households could heat their homes without gas by switching to a heat pump 'from as little as £500'.
But the Advertising Standards Agency watchdog said the advert 'was likely to mislead' because it omitted 'material information' and did not provide enough evidence that a typical consumer could have a heat pump installed by the company for £500.
Octopus Energy has been a key player in the Government's drive to reach net zero, which has involved pushing households to switch from gas boilers to heat pumps, even after Labour quietly ditched the Conservatives' target to have 600,000 fitted each year.
The company, led by chief executive Greg Jackson, sells its own brand of heat pumps and runs a research and development facility in Slough to make them cheaper and easier to install.
However, the EUA said claims that a heat pump could be installed for as little as £500 were exaggerated.
It added that the campaign neglected to highlight eligibility criteria for the Government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which offers grants of up to £7,500 to households fitting a heat pump.
The ASA upheld both complaints – finding that in September, when the advert was running, only 6pc of heat pump sales had been made at or below the price claimed in the ad.
Though the figure had risen to 24pc by December, the ASA concluded the price 'did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the advert appeared'.
The standards body also criticised the advert for not stating that government funding was subject to eligibility criteria, or that the £500 figure included the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant.
Octopus Energy denied that the advert was misleading, and claimed to have used a predictive model based on energy performance certificates to underpin the claim made in the advert.
The company accused the 'fossil fuel lobby' of pressuring the standards body to 'undermine the clean energy sector'.
However, Mike Foster, of the EUA trade body, said it was counterproductive for energy companies 'to make misleading claims because it is part of a wider green agenda'.
He added: 'Consumers should not be misled into buying a product or choosing a supplier, and this is especially relevant with new technologies or ones that they are not familiar with, such as heat pumps.
'It doesn't matter how big a company you are – the rules apply to everyone. Indeed, larger companies should be taking the lead in behaving properly.'
An ASA spokesman said: 'Rulings like this one provide clarity for advertisers on how to promote new, greener technologies such as heat pumps in a way that treats people fairly and in terms that they will understand.
'This forms part of a wider cross-sector project that aims to shine a regulatory spotlight on green claims so that there is a level playing field for business.'
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, of Octopus Energy, said: 'We disagree with this ruling – 13pc of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA's guideline of 10pc.
'This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector.'
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