ASA ruling on jewellery retailer

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that Novita Diamonds Ltd t/a Novita Diamonds has breached the CAP code by failing to disclose that their diamonds were synthetic in their advertising.

The two advertisements were paid-for Meta ads. The first included an image of a diamond ring with text stating, ‘Novita Diamonds ready-to-ship engagement rings 1-10 days’ along with the caption, ‘Find your dream engagement ring in our Ready to Ship collection — crafted to impress, delivered in just 1–10 days. When the moment matters, we make it happen fast’. The second advertisement included a video of diamond rings shown from several angles and on-screen text stating. ‘Timeless designs premium diamonds’ and ‘shop our ready-to-ship collection today Novita Diamonds’.

In their response, Novita Diamonds said that the adverts did not state that the diamonds were natural and contained no reference to this. Further, they did not believe that they were misleading as neither the Competition and Markets Authority nor the Office for Product Safety and Standards had issued guidance around the unqualified use of the word ‘diamond’.

ASA upheld the complaint as they considered consumers would understand the word “diamond” in isolation to mean a naturally occurring mineral. Many consumers would not be aware of synthetic diamonds and therefore the ad needed to make clear the nature of the product to avoid misleading consumers.