OFTEC Ireland has welcomed a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland's Complaints Committee to uphold an earlier complaint against Calor Gas, which suggested that the company had made misleading energy savings claims.

Despite a ‘request for a review’, the ASAI has stood by its earlier decision – announced in July 2013 – that it did not consider that Calor Gas had substantiated energy savings claims made in its campaigns. The authority demanded that Calor Gas withdraw the misleading advertising with immediate effect.

The decision follows a lengthy initial investigation and secondary review by the ASAI based on a complaint originally lodged by OFTEC Ireland. It related to energy savings claims regarding liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) versus oil-fired heating made within Calor’s brochure and on its website.

In the ruling, the ASAI considered that the method of calculation chosen by Calor Gas was ‘likely to exploit the lack of knowledge of consumers’ and was ‘likely to be misleading’.