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Carpet and sofa giant SCS fined again for misleading customers

The SCS store at Kittybrewster retail park.
The SCS store at Kittybrewster retail park.

A furnishings giant has been fined more than £2,000 after misleading north-east customers about the price of a carpet.

SCS displayed the illegal signage at its Kittybrewster Retail Park store in Aberdeen on April 10 2019.

It is the second time SCS has been hauled over the coals because of misleading advertising in recent years.

Parent firm A Share and Sons Ltd, which owns 100 SCS carpet and sofa stores across the UK, including the Aberdeen branch, was fined £6,000 in 2019 after it admitted misleading customers over supposed savings in a Black Friday sale deal.

In that case, in March 2019, Sheriff Ian Wallace told the court: “I do not view this as an oversight – it was a planned act by the company purposefully misleading its customers for financial gain.”

The firm appeared in the dock again today after Aberdeen City Council’s trading standards department received another complaint.

The store had advertised a Malibu carpet on sale for £15.99 as being the “lowest price ever”, but had previously sold it for £14.99 and also £15.49 per square metre.

Fiscal depute Victoria Kerr told Aberdeen Sheriff Court trading standards visited the branch on April 10 2019 after receiving a complaint and obtained a pricing history for the carpet.

‘Lowest price ever sign was false

Promotional material including a sign saying “lowest price ever – only £15.99 per square metre” was noted.

The court heard this was seized on the basis it was “false and misleading”.

The person who had complained had also provided evidence to trading standards that the carpet had previously been on sale at £14.99 and also £15.49 per square metre.

A Share and Sons Ltd pled guilty to engaging in a commercial practice that was misleading.

Defence agent Ramsay Hall said: “A Share and Sons has asked me to apologise at the outset. The company takes seriously its regulatory obligations and has co-operated through the trading standards investigation and when the matter was reported to the crown.

“The circumstances of the breach relate to carpet being advertised as on sale at the lowest price ever – £15.99 per square metre.

SCS has taken steps to stop a repeat

“The business accepts that was inaccurate as the carpet had previously been on sale at lower prices.

“The reason for the breach is that the ‘lowest price ever’ promotional posters were produced by external printers.

“It was an error by the printers to attach the ‘lowest price ever’ to the carpet in question.

“The business accepts it failed to identify the error before the promotional material was displayed in the store and since the error was drawn to their attention by trading standards officers the business removed the material.”

Mr Hall said the firm had also now taken steps to reduce the risk of a repeat incident.

Sheriff Margaret Hodge ordered A Share and Sons, which has its registered address at Villiers Street, Sunderland, to pay a fine of £2,400.

Graeme Paton, Aberdeen City Council trading standards manager, said: “This is the second time in three years SCS has been fined at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 because of misleading prices being displayed in their Kittybrewster store.

“The first occasion stemmed from their ‘Black Friday’ sale of 2017 and resulted in a fine of £6,000 in March 2019. The resulting publicity from that fine generated a complaint from a consumer who said that he too had been ‘duped’ by an in-store price indication that he relied upon when ordering a carpet.

“This was investigated and evidence discovered of further misleading prices led to a second report to the procurator fiscal which has resulted in today’s fine of £2,400.

“The soft furnishing market is undoubtedly a competitive one but businesses must realise that it is also well regulated. Trading Standards will take action where we find instances that they are misleading customers as to the price of their goods in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

“That this is the second time SCS have been found by Aberdeen City Trading Standards to have done so is all the more disappointing.”