The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a website ad for Sky’s broadband ISP and subscription-based TV streaming sub-brand, NOW TV (NOW Broadband), after it failed to make clear the “significant conditions” of its free trials, which would automatically auto-renew at a fee.
The promotion itself was for one of NOW TV’s standard Entertainment Membership plans, which showed up after clicking the “Choose your membership” button on the company’s website in December 2023. Upon clicking that button, consumers were taken to a page showing two subscription options labelled “6 Month Saver” and “Fully Flexible”.
The text in a bullet list in the “6 Month Saver” subscription stated “Watch in Full HD on 3 devices at once with 1 month free Boost”, while small text stated: “New Boost members only. After your 1 month free trial Boost auto-renews at £6 a month unless cancelled”. Text in the “Fully Flexible” subscription stated: “Included: 7 day free trial of Cinema and Boost – cancel anytime”, while the small text stated “After your 7 day free trials, membership auto-renew monthly at £9.99 for Cinema and £6 for Boost. Cancel anytime”.
The free trials were automatically added to the basket and would auto-renew at a monthly charge, unless cancelled. But the ASA ruled that the advert was misleading because significant conditions of the offer(s) were all in the small print and did not immediately follow the reference to the free trials.
ASA Ruling Ref: A24-1229858 Sky UK Ltd
We understood that each free trial would auto-renew at a monthly charge, specifically £6 for “Boost” and £9.99 for “Cinema”, unless they were cancelled within the free trial period. We acknowledged that those significant conditions were stated at the bottom of the two boxes detailing each of the streaming packages. When compared, however, to the other text presented in the box, we considered this information was in a smaller font and a less prominent colour.
Furthermore, we noted that the text was positioned at the bottom of the boxes, underneath the buttons to select and purchase the consumer’s desired streaming package. We considered that, because the text was placed away from the references to the free trials and below the button to proceed in the consumer journey, consumers were more likely to overlook the significant conditions of the trials. We considered the presentation of such text made it significantly less prominent to consumers and increased the likelihood that consumers would miss that information.
Because the text outlining the significant conditions of the free trials was not clear in either size or clarity of font and did not immediately follow the reference to the free trials, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
As usual, the ASA banned the advert in its current form and told NOW TV to ensure that their future ads made sufficiently clear that free trials would auto-renew at a fee. Interestingly, this ruling appears to form part of a wider piece of work by the ASA, which is examining online choice architecture and how it impacts consumers (following complaints received and intelligence gathered by the ASA). This goes beyond merely examining static adverts and probes deeper into the selection process.