The ASA has ruled on advertising violations by the Learning Group Ltd t/a Montessori Tutors, based in Birmingham for misleading consumers on two counts.
A website for Montessori Tutors, Montessori Tutors website, seen on 30 May 2021, displayed the headline “JOB AS A MONTESSORI TUTOR” with the sub-title “Part-time Job. Train to be a Montessori Tutor & earn up to £55 per hour”.
Advertising violations online
The ad was a long web page that included several references to the potential earnings of tutors who completed the Montessori training offered by the advertiser. The complainant challenged whether the following earnings claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1. “Train to be a Montessori tutor & earn up to £55 per hour”; and
2. “earn between £15 – £120 per hour”.
The first claim, at the top of the page, stated that tutors could “earn up to £55 per hour”. The following paragraph stated that tutors could “earn between £15 – £120 per hour”.
Further claims included that “Job Earnings” were “Between £20 – £120”, a claim that someone who had trained with the advertiser charged “£150 per student per month”, that “Super Tutors” could “charge up to £120 per hour”, and a graph which showed yearly earnings for online tutors showing a range between “25,500” and “64,000” and a “National Average” of “43,914/year”.
The ASA considered that the claims were false and couldn’t be proved or supported. They requested to see evidence that substantiated the stated earnings figures for tutors who had trained with and offered their services through Montessori Tutors.
However, the advertiser had not provided any evidence to substantiate the claims. In the absence of such evidence, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.
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