An advert created by Eurostar offering train tickets to France from as little as £29 has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The regulator upheld a complaint from a customer who was unable to find tickets at the advertised price from London to Paris, which travels through Kent at Ebbsfleet and Ashford.

The company's advert had said: "With Eurostar tickets from as little as £29 o/w* and trains leaving for Paris up to 18 times a day, start your escape in London or Kent and arrive rested and raring to go, right in the heart of the action". Further text stated “Train to Lille from £29* one way”.

Eurostar responded to the complaint saying: “Customers would not expect to find the lead-in £29 fare available for departures within the immediate six weeks, and would instead expect this fare to be available for bookings made further in advance.”

It clarified the tickets were available for bookings made six to 18 weeks in advance of travel.

It accepted this could have been explained more clearly and added a note on its web page which read: "(At least) 10,000 seats available between London and Paris and (at least) 5,000 seats available between London and Lille, for travel dates comprised between six and 18 weeks from date of booking, subject to availability and black-out dates."

But the ASA upheld the complaint and said the advert was "was likely to mislead".

It said consumers would understand the £29 fares to be from the date of booking onwards.

The judgment read: “We also considered that to avoid misleading consumers, the availability of a product at the 'from' price should be spread reasonably evenly across the advertised travel period, unless the ad made clear that was not the case, and marketers should make clear the specific travel period to which an offer related.

“Tickets at the lead-in price were only available for dates at least six weeks ahead of the date of booking.

“We acknowledged that on most days in the booking horizon, there were multiple £29 tickets available on different train services.

“However, because the lead-in price tickets were on sale over a 12-week period, there was considerably less availability toward the beginning of the booking window.

“We acknowledged Eurostar’s willingness to make changes to their advertising, and also assessed the claim in light of the qualification they had since added to the web page.”

The advert has been banned from the website and Eurostar must ensure a significant proportion of fares were available at the lead-in price.

Any future adds should have qualifications for the deals more prominent for the consumer.