Short-term loan company Wonga.com has avoided a ban from the advertising watchdog despite more than 80 complaints that its ads failed to show that it charged up to 4,214% interest.

Wonga.com has come in for criticism from opponents of high-cost lenders which entice consumers with large advertising budgets on TV, press and outdoor.

Labour MP Stella Creasy has described such firms as legal loan sharks.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 82 complaints about Wonga.com advertisements that failed to state an annual percentage rate of interest, with three of the complainants specifically citing a TV ad featuring three puppets that portrayed elderly employees in an office.

Wonga.com said that it had a transparent method for detailing the true cost of borrowing on its website, and said that the loans it advertised on TV had to be applied for online.

The company argued that APR (annual percentage rate) was a one-size-fits-all piece of information and including it would not allow a meaningful comparison of Wonga.com products against that of other financial institutions.

The ASA said that the ad only described payday loan products in broad terms and that viewers were directed to the website to complete the transaction.

"Although we noted that the APR was high (listed on the Wonga website at the time of the advertising as 4,214%), as was the actual interest rate, we noted that this information was provided clearly on the website, which also included a mechanism that allowed consumers to calculate the true cost of borrowing," the ASA said.

The ASA noted the potential vulnerability of those seeking a rapid short-term loans but decided that the ad was unlikely to mislead viewers by the omission of material information concerning the rate of interest.

It dismissed the complaints against Wonga.com.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.