When is a lie not a lie
When it’s in a press release!
Last Summer Cuadrilla made the claim in their “Community Newsletter” that
Cuadrilla uses proven, safe technologies to explore for and recover natural gas
Refracktion complained to the ASA about this statement and they duly adjudicated that
On this point, the claim “Cuadrilla uses proven, safe technologies to explore for and recover natural gas” breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration).
Roll on a couple of months and Cuadrilla’s press release this morning has a “Notes for Editors” section which begins
Cuadrilla Resources uses proven, safe technologies to explore for and recover natural gas reserves
We brought this to the attention of the ASA this morning and they replied
“as it’s a press release (which is not considered advertising) we can’t take action”
So Cuadrilla get away with making claims to the general public which have already been judged to be misleading by an objective 3rd party. What a wonderful regulatory system we have.
We do so hope that the regulations around fracking are a bit more robust. LOL
in the meantime editors obviously need to be careful of what they are told by Cuadrilla or they could end up facing complaints themselves.
