A complaint against business networking firm The Ecademy has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The firm’s website had contained details of a workshop in February this year, entitled: ’How to Master Social Media workshop with Thomas Power… Build your personal brand online’.

A complainant had queried whether the claims were misleading as they had attended the course and found it did not cover the areas listed.

Ecademy said delegates were asked to complete an online test in order to gain information about personal qualities which were relevant to the course content and use of social media.

They added that some delegates had failed to complete the online test before the courses started so were asked to do so upon arrival. Due to the number of questions raised on the course and the quality of delegates’ computers, it was deemed necessary to go at the pace of the slowest delegates, substantially slowing down teaching. Upon receiving the complaint Ecademy remove the ad.

The ASA, while believing that all areas listed in the ad had been covered by the day-long course, also said it had not seen evidence that demonstrated what content was covered or the extent to which each topic had been covered.

Consequently, the ASA concluded that the list of course topics had not been substantiated and therefore the ad was misleading. The ASA ruled the ad must not appear again in its present form. Ecademy was also told not to make claims about courses offered unless they held documentary evidence that showed the material.