Sports Direct has had its knuckles rapped by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after it received complaints that some of its shops misled customers over closing down promotions.

Sports Direct subsidiaries Sportsdirect.com, Gilesports and Hargreaves Sports agreed to provide undertakings not to mislead customers, who reported to the OFT that the retailer was displaying closing down ads for several months in the windows of shops which did not close or only closed temporarily for refurbishment.

The OFT considered the advs to be in breach of the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988.

In a statement the OFT said: “In the opinion of the OFT the advertisements created the incorrect impression that the shop in question was to close permanently and as a result of the imminent closure the consumer only had a very short period of time to purchase the goods and/or that only a limited amount of stock was available.

It added that the retailers had responded “positively” to the OFT’s concerns by making advertising clearer.

OFT director of consumer protection said: “It is important that advertising accurately reflects traders intentions to close business premises.”

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