Purplebricks rapped over ‘misleading’ ads

Estate agent Purplebricks was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority today for potentially “misleading” customers over its fees.

Complaints over its “commisery” campaign — where sellers headbutt cakes and the like on finding out how much they could have saved with Purplebricks — were partially upheld by the watchdog.

Purplebricks combines online trading with estate agency staff and customers have to pay a fee whether or not their house is sold, although this is much less than traditional rivals. The ASA rejected a complaint that Purplebricks’ ads implied it did not charge a fee. But it said “it was not sufficiently clear… that the fee payable to Purplebricks was not conditional on the sale of the property” and that the ads were therefore “misleading”.

Purplebricks has already changed the wording of its ads, and boss Michael Bruce said he was “surprised” by the decision. “Prior to airing, our ads went through the proper approvals process, including official clearance body Clearcast who have continued to support their original judgment with the ASA.” Shares fell 7.4p to 344.4p.