Mattress brand Nectar Sleep has been told to make sure future adverts are not misleading with regards to savings claims.
The home page of the Nectar Sleep website www.nectarsleep.co.uk, seen on 23 January 2026, featured the text “THE NECTAR PRICE DROP IS HERE. Our lowest prices ever. Save up to 65% [asterisk] on your dream sleep”. Smaller text underneath next to an asterisk read “Savings compared to Similar Brands Avg Prices”.
Mattress company Simba Sleep Ltd challenged whether the basis of the “Similar Brands Avg Prices” and associated savings claims was made clear and was misleading.
Nectar Sleep Ltd said the headline claim “Save up to 65%” compared their prices with the average prices of competitors’ equivalent products. The explanatory wording “Savings compared to Similar Brands Avg Prices” was placed directly underneath the headline claim.
They believed the placement near to the headline claim, as well as the use of an asterisk, meant consumers would understand the basis on which that headline claim was made. The explanatory wording linked to another page on Nectar Sleep’s website which explained how the Similar Brands Average Price figure had been calculated. That page listed the competitor products which Nectar Sleep had used for the comparison as well as the date on which the prices were checked.
Following an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), it considered that consumers would typically understand “up to” percentage savings claims to be made in the context of a sale or promotion, and to represent a potential saving consumers could achieve compared to the usual selling price of a product.
Consumers would expect savings claims that referenced competing products to be based on genuine, established prices for those products so they could make a direct comparison when choosing between them, and compare prices that were actually available.
In summary, the ASA stated: “Because we considered that consumers were likely to understand the claim “Save up to 65%” to refer to a genuine saving against the usual selling price of Nectar Sleep’s products, but the claim was based on a comparison with an average of selected competitor’s prices, we concluded the ad was misleading.
“The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Nectar Sleep Ltd to ensure that future “save up to” claims were not misleading and that they made the basis of their savings claims clear. We also told them to ensure that comparisons against other brands’ prices were based on actual prices for those products.”
