Buyers looking in the UK market will from now on note a change in the advertising for houses to be sold at auction. The UK regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), concerned about the vagueness of the term “guide price”, has intervened to demand more transparency.

The move came about in response to a complaint against an advertisement for Auction House UK that referred to “guide prices”. The ASA ruled that the company should have “clearly and prominently” qualified each guide price through the use, for example, of an asterisk linking to explanatory text which included a definition of the guide price and its distinction from a reserve price (the lowest price the vendor will accept), as well as the fact that it is “subject to change”.

This qualification now applies to all auction houses in all media, including print and online. In addition, advertisers must now include an explanation that the guide price is an indication of the range within which the minimum sale price will fall, unless they are able to prove that they routinely update their guide price whenever a reserve price is set that is higher than the lower end of the guide price. Guide prices were used here some years ago until they became nonsensical as an indicator of real prices at auction. They were replaced by the advised minimum value (AMV), which more closely reflects the lowest price a vendor is likely to accept.