Valve Busted In The UK For “Misleading” GTA V Sale

The United Kingdom has an advertising regulator referred to as the ASA who makes sure ad campaigns are trustworthy. They felt something about the latest GTA V sale by Valve, on their online store Steam, was less than honest.

Valve’s ad promoting the sale was only up for two days — June 11 and 12. They advertised that GTA V was on sale for 25 percent off at £38.98, which certainly sounds misleading as the normal price was £40. Steam arrived at this number by counting some in-game currency the game was bundled with, which was valued at around £12. The ASA ruled that kind of math isn’t allowed. “Because a 25 percent saving was not available on the usual selling price of the product at the time the ad appeared, as claimed, we concluded that it was misleading.”

Valve didn’t have much of a leg to stand on here because on the same two days, it also offered GTA V without the bundled currency at the same price, and marked THAT was 25% off. The game merchant claimed that time, it was a software error and was removed three hours after it went up. It still existed, though, and didn’t help their case.

The ASA did not fine Valve, but they issued a ruling stating they could never run the ad again. Valve should have no problem upholding that ruling.