News in brief: Lloyds Ad Banned for Greenwashing; Netflix Fined for Use of Customer Data; Temu Named UK's Most Downloaded iPhone App

Lloyds Ad Banned for Greenwashing

An ad from Lloyds Bank has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising watchdog, on the grounds of breaking its rules against greenwashing. A complaint by Adfree Cities – a network which campaigns against the impacts of corporate outdoor advertising – brought attention to three ads by the bank: an OOH poster and three paid-for LinkedIn ads. The network challenged whether the ads were misleading because they omitted significant information about Lloyds’ contribution to carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions while attempting to show off their ‘green’ credentials. 

Following an investigation, the ASA upheld a claim for one of the LinkedIn posts. The investigation concluded that information omitted from the ad was likely to mislead consumers. Their ruling stated: “We told Lloyds Bank plc to ensure future ads featuring environmental claims did not mislead by omitting significant information which put the claims into context and helped with consumer understanding of the message, for example by including information about the proportion of their business activities that comprised lower carbon activities.” 

Netflix Fined for Use of Customer Data

Netflix has finally been fined over a data complaint from 2019 which accused it of failing to properly inform customers about its use of their personal data. The fine of €4.75m (£3.92m) comes from the Dutch Data Protection Authority, issued under GDPR. The authority’s announcement states that “Netflix did not give customers sufficient information about what the company does with their personal data between 2018 and 2020”, adding that when it did, the information was unclear on some points. The complaint had come from privacy rights non-profit group, noyb, which also filed similar complaints against other streaming services including Amazon Prime and YouTube. 

Temu Named UK's Most Downloaded iPhone App

Temu has emerged as the most downloaded iPhone app this year in the UK, Apple revealed. The app also holds the top spot for 2024 in many other countries including the US, Germany, Spain, Australia and South Korea. Shein follows closely behind its competitor, reaching second place in the UK.