Starbucks complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom about claims made by Costa, a competitor with almost 1,000 U.K. stores, in an ad campaign based on a survey of 334 coffee shop customers, The Times of London reports.

In one version, an ad says, "Sorry Starbucks -- the people have voted."

"The watchdog confirmed that it had received a complaint from the American coffee behemoth arguing that the Costa adverts were misleading and misrepresented the basis of the claims," The Times reports.

ASA referred part of the complaint to another regulator called Ofcom, which upheld Starbucks' assertion that cappuccino was "a drink that represents just a small proportion of coffee sales," and that for a survey to be representative, it should compare Costa against the whole market including independent and chain coffee shops, The Times reports.

Final recommendations from the ASA are expected in the next few days. Starbucks had 664 stores in the United Kingdom in September 2008, the last month for which a store count is available.