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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned several TV, radio, paid-for social media and digital poster adverts for UK ISP EE’s (BT) home broadband service. This occurred after they were found to have made “misleading” claims about the capabilities of the provider’s new Wi-Fi 7 Smart Hub Pro router and Smart Wi-Fi Pro device.
The new Wi-Fi 7 capable router and wireless booster hardware was officially introduced in September 2024 (here). At the time, EE were still one of the only broadband ISPs in the UK market able to offer such kit, and the following month they launched a series of adverts to help promote that fact.
The adverts made various similar claims, which appeared to indicate that the use of the latest WiFi (wireless networking) standard would improve device performance: “When everyone’s caning the broadband, Wi-Fi 7 on EE makes every device work better, even yours”, said one advert, while small text added: “Works better vs previous Wi-Fi technology”. In another advert, EE claimed that “XBOX PLAYS BETTER ON WIFI 7” and so forth.
The catch here is that Wi-Fi 7 can only really deliver its biggest improvements, such as when compared with older Wi-Fi 6 or 6E kit, if the devices it’s connecting to are also able to support the same Wi-Fi 7 standard. But most people don’t currently have any other Wi-Fi 7 capable devices in their homes.
In response Vodafone, CommunityFibre and 19 members of the public, who understood most devices available at the time the ads were seen did not support Wi-Fi 7, challenged whether the ads were misleading and the ASA ultimately upheld those complaints. In particular, the ASA noted that EE hadn’t provided enough credible evidence to substantiate all of their claims.
ASA Ruling (G24-1265502 EE Ltd t/a EE Ltd)
“We understood that, alongside the Wi-Fi 7 router, an extender was supplied as part of the package to extend the range of the router’s signal around the home. However, we considered that was not clear from the ad. We acknowledged that the claims in the ads were always qualified with the text “EE’s exclusive Smart Wi-Fi Pro”. While this implied the product was unique to EE and may have offered benefits that were not available from other Wi-Fi 7 routers, we did not consider that it clarified how the products worked. Although ad (b) referenced the router, none of the ads indicated that the Smart Wi-Fi Pro included both the router and the extender. We understood from EE that the ad claims were based on the performance of the two combined.
We understood the tests were designed to record the speed, consistency and reliability of the Wi-Fi connection between the router and a device. The results showed that both the Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 devices’ broadband connection speeds were faster, more consistent and more reliable when connecting to the internet using EE’s new Smart Hub Pro and extender, compared to their older hub and extender which did not have Wi-Fi 7.
However, while the devices tested varied in generations of Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 5, 6 and 7) and demonstrated the backward compatibility of the new router with devices which were not Wi-Fi 7-enabled, they were all laptops. This limited testing scope, confined to a single device type, meant that the evaluation did not encompass a broad range of devices, such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles or smart home gadgets. The tests also did not evaluate device performance while multiple devices were being used simultaneously. Consequently, we considered that the testing was not adequate to substantiate the claims in the context of ads (a), (b) and (c) that “every device works better”, as consumers would understand them.
Ads (c) and (d) referenced devices such as the Xbox and Google devices, including the Google Nest Hub and Google Nest Home. Because those devices were not included in the testing, we considered the evidence was not adequate to substantiate stated and implied claims that those devices performed better. We also understood that none of those devices were Wi-Fi 7-enabled devices.
Because the evidence was not adequate to substantiate the claims as consumers would interpret them, we concluded that the claim “EE’s new Wi-Fi 7 router makes every device work better” in ads (a), (b) and (c) as well as the references to specific devices in ads (c) and (d), were misleading.”
As usual, the ASA banned the adverts and told EE not to claim that “EE’s new Wi-Fi 7 router makes every device work better” or make similar claims, “unless they held adequate evidence to support the claims“. They also must not claim that specific devices “work better on Wi-Fi 7” unless they held adequate evidence to support them.