When evaluating survey data the devil is always in the detail. In a recent case the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) allowed Solal Technologies to keep crucial survey details secret. This decision deprived the complainant, Marcus Low, from an opportunity to interrogate spurious survey findings.

The Final Appeals Committee of the Advertising Standards Authority has overturned a ruling that an advertisement by Solal was in breach of Appendix F. The advert in question implied that a Solal product containing Omega-3 reduced the risk of heart disease. The original ASA ruling, following a complaint from Kevin Charleston, found that the advert breached Appendix F. This appendix limits what advertisers can say about a range of medical conditions, including heart disease. In ...

Last year Solal Technologies sent letters of demand threatening to sue Roy Jobson and one of us (Steinman) for defamation. They have not carried out that threat. Now the company is once again trying to intimidate those who criticise it.