ASA orders websites selling birth, death and marriage certificates to change 'misleading' wording

Two companies with websites selling government services at inflated prices have been ordered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to stop "misleading" the public.

The ASA said that UK Official Services and UK GRO Certificates, both of which sell birth, death and marriage certificates, used wording on their websites that  could lead people to believe they were ordering from official sites.

For example claims on the advertising watchdog said that claims on UK Official Services site saying "we provide government approved and official ... certificates" and "guaranteed official certificates" implied wrongly that UKOS was the government service.

Also athough it is not illegal to charge for express services, the Genera Registry Office (GRO), which made the complaints about the websites to the ASA was concerned that it was not made clear to people that they can buy the services far cheaper at official government sites.

Some customers were being charged up to £74.99 for an unofficial 'express' online service from one of the sites while an express service via the official website, Identity & Passport Service, is only £23.40.

UK Official Services defended itself by saying it believed its website made clear that their services were no relation to the service offered by the GRO. It also said the site clearly stated that the replacement certificates were created by the GRO or the local registry offices.

UK GRO Certificates apologised for any misleading claims and said it was not its intention to show or promote their website as the General Registry Office. Both companies said they would make the changes asked for and UK GRO said it would also remove the ‘Golden Seal' featuring the Queen's head that was on its site as soon as possible

The problem of people believing they are buying services from official or affiliated Government sites is an ongoing problem for both the ASA and the OFT.

Last year the OFT took action against four websites that it said were "tricking" people into buying European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs) and this year said it was still investigating websites that it believes mislead consumers.