A law firm has been told to ensure all future advertisements feature genuine testimonials after misleading claims were made in two TikTok posts.

TMS Legal, which specialises in claims for mis-sold packaged bank accounts, was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority over the two paid-for posts from April.

The advertisements featured what appeared to be successful clients holding four-figure cheques after winning claims against lenders.

One of the lenders, Vanquis Banking Group, alleged that the posts were misleading because they implied the testimonials featured were from genuine customers.

TMS Legal, based in Dorset, admitted that the ads did not contain genuine customer testimonials and the people in the videos were actors. Its marketing agency had prepared the ads without the firm’s knowledge in an attempt to provide representative testimonials and average compensations sums that clients received.

TMS Legal said the ads were published in error due to an ‘internal oversight’ and could be deemed misleading because it was not explained that the people featured were actors. The ads were removed by the firm in June.

The ASA said the posts had been misleading and must not appear again in the same form. It told TMS Legal Ltd to ensure that future ads did not imply testimonials were genuine if that was not the case.

It is the second time in two months that the firm has been sanctioned by regulators. In September, TMS Legal was fined £45,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for failing to carry out sufficient client due diligence, submitting claims with inaccurate information and continuing to act on two matters where the clients had asked it to stop. The SRA noted that TMS Legal had cooperated with the investigation throughout, reviewed and updated its supervision and quality policy, and provided compliance training to staff. 

 

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