The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has reached an agreement with Ikea for the Swedish-founded retailer to remove an email advertisement after a complaint. 

The email, the ASA said, carried the subject line “something special, from us to you” with an offer of a $10 voucher for customers who spend more than $100 on a single shop. One loyalty-member customer told the ASA that it received an email with the subject line “$10 off” that provided a specific discount code.

“However, when I tried to use the code, Ikea support informed me it wouldn’t reduce my current total,” the complainant added. “They pointed to a vague line in the fine print stating the voucher must be ‘activated’, which they defined as requiring me to pay full price for my current shop first.”

Ikea conceded that the terms and conditions of the offer were not an accurate reflection of its “intended parameters”.

“Our investigation revealed that our system excluded specific categories of products, including discounted offers, newly reduced price items, Ikea Family offers, and circular items,” a company spokesperson said. “Consequently, these products may not have been appropriately applied towards the $100 qualification threshold. We sincerely apologise for this discrepancy and any inconvenience it may have caused.”

Under ASA guidelines, a company is allowed to remove an advert once a complaint is received, before it is sent to the authority’s complaints board.

“Given the advertiser’s co-operative engagement with the process by acknowledging the error and the commitment to implement stronger processes around communicating accurate terms and conditions going forward, the chair ruled the complaint was settled,” the ASA said.