Hunton Retail Law Resource

The National Advertising Division (NAD) affirmed that Reckitt Benckiser, Inc.’s claim of “#1 Carpet Cleaning Brand” for its Resolve Carpet Cleaner product line is supported by the appropriate underlying unit sales data. Responding to a challenge brought by BISSELL Homecare, Inc., NAD noted that Reckitt Benckiser’s “#1 Brand” claim is properly understood to mean that the brand itself, rather than any specific product, holds the highest market share in its relevant category. To that, Nielsen tracking data for units of products sold to consumers in the “carpet cleaning brand” category supports Reckitt Benckiser’s “#1 Brand” sales superiority claim for the Resolve products. Still, NAD noted that Reckitt Benckiser fails to properly identify the time period and scope for the relevant data in its disclaimer. Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to comply with NAD’s recommendation of a modified disclaimer in the future use of its “#1 Brand” claim.

In a similar matter, in which Intuit Inc. challenged TaxSlayer LLC’s “#1 Rated” advertising claims, NAD found that multiple iterations of TaxSlayer’s claim that their software was “#1 rated on Trustpilot” could be construed as conveying the unsupported message that such rating was based on a reliable and representative comparative survey of similar products. As NAD noted, TaxSlayer’s claims rely on Trustpilot reviews that represent general customer satisfaction and not relevant product comparisons of similar tax preparation software as necessary for a “#1 Rated” claim.