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The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Boots over a “misleading” Black Friday fragrance promotion that appeared online. 

The online display advert, which was seen on November 23, 2025 ahead of the November 27 sales event, featured a voice-over stating: “Boots’ biggest ever Black Friday is here with up to 30 per cent off premium beauty and fragrance must haves.

“Including… this Boss Bottle Beyond fragrance, was £80 now only £60.”

An image of the fragrance was also shown along with the text “£80 [crossed out] £60”.

After the ASA challenged whether the reference price and savings claims were misleading, Boots disclosed that the fragrance was new to market and had first been sold on September 10, 2025, meaning “no pricing history before this date was available”.

The ASA said in its report: “They stated the fragrance was sold at £80 for 21 days, £64 for 26 days and £60 for 40 days.

“They acknowledged the product had been sold at the promotional price for longer than the reference price.”

The ASA said it considered that £80 “had not been established as the genuine usual selling product” and that the advert was therefore “misleading”.

The company told the ASA this was “due to a member of staff failing to follow Boots’ internal policies on pricing and promotions”.

Boots said training has been provided to prevent a recurrence of the issue and that additional measures will be taken.

The ASA told Boots that the Hugo Boss advert “must not appear again in the form complained of” and told the company to ensure that any savings claims in future promotions are “made against the usual selling price of the product”.

The watchdog also investigated a Yankee Candles price promotion that appeared as part of the same Black Friday campaign by Boots but concluded that in this instance the reference price and savings claims were accurate.  

Boots UK told P3pharmacy: "We know that our customers enjoy making genuine savings on their shopping at Boots, and last year we offered discounts on more than 20,000 products across the Black Friday period.

"We have taken learnings from this isolated case that was a result of human error, and remain fully committed to making sure that our promotions comply."