Homebase has been taken to task by the ad watchdog over a number of offers made on its website after B&Q complained about them.
In total, 16 offers were advertised on homebase.co.uk between December 2013 and March 2014, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld B&Q's challenge over all of them.

The ads, for kitchen units, bathrooms and bedrooms, promoted special price deals for limited periods and gave a closing date. However, the day after the closing dates the same deals were advertised again.

B & Q challenged whether the promotions were misleading because, firstly, they failed to make clear when the higher prices referenced in the ads were charged, secondly, because different promotions ran consecutively without the normal prices being re-established, and thirdly that the overlay promotions were extended - or even improved - beyond the original closing dates which disadvantaged customers who bought during the initial sale periods.

The ASA decided that the ads did not make clear for how long the higher price was established. And it said that because the 83-day sale period was so much longer than the 28-day period over which the higher price had been charged, the '60% off' price had become the norm, rather than the higher price.

Those ads were therefore likely to mislead consumers into thinking greater savings were available than was actually the case.

The ASA also said that where overlay ads were immediately followed by another and where the offer discount was the same or better, the ads were likely to mislead. And the original closing dates were also inaccurate and misleading, implying that the offer detailed in those ads would end on the date given.

The ASA told Homebase to make sure that savings claims were made against normal product prices and that savings claims were not exaggerated.