The UK’s leading broadband providers, BT, EE, O2, Virgin Media, Plusnet and TalkTalk, have all been battered by the ad watchdog for failing to make clear that their contracts would be subject to mid-contract price increases, following a single complaint against each one.
All six companies have fallen foul of CAP Guidance that states that mid-contract price increases are material information that consumers need in order to make an informed transactional decision.
Consequently, marketers are required to ensure that advertising for services that include mid-contract price increases include such information and that it was presented clearly and prominently.
The guidance also states that asterisks or links, which link to information more than one ‘step’ below the price claim, are unlikely to give adequate weight to the significance of material information.
However, in each case, details about the mid-contract prices was either not prominent enough or hidden in small print and the price claims and other information provided for each individual package did not state that the monthly price would be subject to an annual increase, nor the nature of that increase.
Despite all six providers claiming that their advertising was clear, the ASA threw out each defence, maintaining that the information was not located sufficiently close to the monthly prices stated within the individual broadband package’s listings. It further noted that the listings of the individual broadband packages did not provide information explaining the nature of the price increases.
In each of its rulings, published today, the Advertising Standards Authority stated: “Because the presentation of the mid-contract price increases was not presented clearly, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead.The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.10 (Qualification), and 3.17 and 3.18 (Prices).”
Banning the ads from appearing again in their current form, the watchdog warned BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media about their future activity.
The ASA insisted that the firms must ensure that they made sufficiently clear that their broadband contracts would be subject to mid-contract price increases, and that information about the nature of such price increases was presented prominently.
None of the companies has so far responded to the rulings.
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