Argos has been warned about “free” add-ons increasing the price of electrical products.

An ad for the retailer misleadingly claimed a £179.99 Canon Powershot SX620 camera came with a "free" SD card and case when the price had been inflated to include the cost of these extras, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.

A customer said the same camera was offered for sale on its own for £159.99 on the Argos website at the same time, and complained the retailer's claim the add-ons were free was misleading.

Argos said the camera was first sold for £249.99 and later as part of a bundle with additional free items at £199.99.

It added the single camera was put into clearance at the same time before the bundle price dropped further to £179.99.

The retailer said clearance prices were "aggressively slashed" once products were no longer part of the core range, but it understood this could have been confusing for customers who saw the bundle product stating the extras were free.

The ASA said: "Overall, we considered that consumers were likely to understand that the package price had been inflated to include the price of the SD card and case.

"We considered that it was misleading to describe those elements of the bundle as 'free' and concluded that the ad breached the code.

"We told Argos not to describe an element of a package as 'free' if that element was included in the package price, unless consumers were likely to regard it as an additional benefit because it had recently been added to package without increasing its price."

An Argos spokeswoman said: "We're sorry for any confusion this may have caused and have processes in place to prevent this from happening in future."