AN ONLINE retailer has been accused of selling real animal fur which it had told customers was faux.
Just Your Outfit are alleged to have sold at least one item as “faux fur” when it contained real fur.
A complaint was first made to the ASA from the Humane Society International, an animal welfare charity, which did not believe that the product was made purely from faux fur.
Humane Society International (HSI) told the ASA that they had purchased a beanie from Just Your Outfit and tested it.
The retailer said the beanie included faux fur but the HSI claimed that the label on the product showed it contained the fur of a marmot, a species of squirrel.
A test is also alleged to have shown that raccoon fur was also in the product, which has been taken off sale.
The ASA investigated a further three products at random.
The items were £12 “mocha fluffy faux fur sliders”, a £20 “black faux fur shoulder bag” and a £60 “black faux fur denim jacket”.
The ASA said: “We understood that HSI had bought a ‘grey diamante faux fur beanie hat’ from Just Your Outfit and found that the hat’s label stated that it contained marmot fur.
“We also understood that HSI had tested the product internally and believed that it contained raccoon dog fur.
“We, therefore, contacted Just Your Outfit to challenge the ‘faux fur’ claim that appeared in their listing for the beanie hat as well as the three listings, which we randomly selected.”
The ASA added: “As part of that work we asked them to check the labels for those products and to send images of those labels, and explain what steps they had taken to test the products to ensure that they did not contain animal fur.”
The ASA said it was told by Just Your Outfit that they had removed the listing for the beanie hat because it contained marmot fur.
“And they provided a label for the “faux fur denim jacket” listing which stated that it was made out of polyester,” said the ASA.
“However, they did not provide any further explanation or the full supporting evidence we had requested. We therefore referred the matter for a formal ASA investigation and ruling.”
The ASA submitted a complaint to Just Your Outfit but did not get a substantive response which is a breach of the CAP code.
Just your outfit was told by the ASA to give substantive responses in the future.
The ASA told the company: “Not to make ‘faux fur’ claims in their advertising if they did not hold evidence to demonstrate that their products contained exclusively faux fur with no real animal fur.”
The ASA also asked the company to submit scans of the labels and test reports of the three products that were under investigation to prove that the products were made exclusively from faux fur.
The company did not provide enough supporting evidence so it was concluded that the advert was misleading. This was considered a breach of the CAP code by the ASA as it was viewed as “misleading advertising”.
Deadline News contacted Just Your Outfit but they had not replied at the time of publication.
