Motorists who have unknowingly bought ex-fleet, ex-business or ex-rental vehicles from used-approved dealers through misleading advertisement could be entitled to anywhere between 25 to 100 per cent of the purchase price back in compensation, leading lawyers have told auto Express. 
Damon Parker, head of litigation at law firm Harcus Sinclair said a recent ruling by the advertising standards Authority (ASA) now means owners have a “viable case” against used-approved dealers that failed to inform them the automobile they bought was once used by fleets, rental companies or for business use. 
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In October this year, the advertising standards Authority ruled on behalf of auto express reader Ashley Rumbold who complained about two advertisements on Alfa Romeo’s used-approved website. The automobiles were advertised as having one previous owner, but it was later discovered both were ex-fleet vehicles.
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The ASA said: “If a dealer knew that a vehicle was ex-fleet because it had previously been used for business purposes, then that was material information likely to influence a customer’s transactional decision.”
The ruling required the used approved dealer and Fiat  Chrysler Automobiles, the parent group of Alfa Romeo, to ensure future ads do not omit misleading material. A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spokesman told auto express it has already introduced interim measures to inform buyers automobiles on the company’s used-approved site may be former fleet vehicles. He added: “In the long term, there will be a change to our online systems so that individual vehicle pages will enable the retailer to flag the status of each vehicle advertised for sale.”
An ASA spokesman said the organisation is now communicating the message to the rest of the automotive industry: “We are telling advertisers that they must include information that they do not currently always include: specifically, if a automobile is ex-fleet or ex-hire or similar. We are telling them they need to change that aspect of their advertising. If they need to put in place new functionality on their websites to achieve that then they will need to do so.”
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