An advertisement destined for British television had claimed that the cleaning technology in Tennant’s ec-H2O scrubber dryers was superior to traditional methods.

A formal complaint about the veracity of the wording in the advertising was raised by Kärcher, the German cleaning equipment company.

Tennant, which has sales and support offices in Northampton and Scotland, backed up the claim by stating that when using ec-H2O, more bacteria had been proven to be removed than with detergents.

But the ASA, the UK’s main advertising standards police, said that no forceful evidence on the point had been presented, and therefore ruled the advertising message was deemed to be misleading by the ASA.

“We are happy with this ruling of the ASA,” said Markus Asch, deputy chairman of the Board of Management of the Kärcher Group. “… Kärcher is willing to accept in principle that a cleaning process free from chemicals has a lower environmental impact and saves costs, as all scrubber dryers are able to achieve satisfactory results even without detergents in the case of light soiling.

“[But] Just like tap water, ‘ec-H2O’ reaches its limits when tackling very stubborn dirt,” Herr Asch added.