ASA upheld complaint about compostable coffee pods

A paid-for search ad for Dualit coffee bags stated “Dualit Coffee Bags – Compostable Coffee Bags”. Further text below stated “Discover Dualit’s compostable coffee bags – café-quality ground coffee in a bag”.

The ASA challenged whether the claim “compostable coffee bags” was misleading.

Amongst other things, Dualit said consumers would interpret the claim “Compostable Coffee Bags” to mean the bags were made from a compostable material and would not assume they were home compostable.

The ASA rejected Dualit’s representations and upheld the complaint. Its reasoning included:

CAP guidance stated that if the disposal process referred to in an ad was likely to differ from the average consumer’s expectation of what that process entailed, that may be considered material information. The claim was, therefore, likely to need qualification – for example, by making clear where and how, the product should be disposed of.

The claim “Compostable Coffee Bags” implied the bags, which would typically be used within the home, could be composted in a home composter, but as this was not the case, we considered it was likely to mislead.