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Six separate Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rulings have been published this week regarding British telcos
The ASA has cracked down once again on some of the UK’s biggest telcos for ads containing misleading broadband price information.
The ASA issued rulings on ads from BT, its subsidiaries EE and Plusnet, as well as TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and O2, after finding they did not adequately inform customers about mid-contract price rises.
The crackdown follows new guidance introduced by the ASA in December last year. This new, stricter guidance on mid-contract price rises for telcos followed a six-month grace period that began last June and is aimed at tackling what has been dubbed “greedflation” within the sector. These rules require that telecom companies clearly highlight any potential price hikes in their advertising when customers sign up for broadband or mobile services. They also require that these price increases be communicated clearly, in terms of “pounds and pence”, at the point of purchase.
In the watchdog’s rulings, it claimed that the highlighted ads failed to meet this guidance, often by presenting the price rise information in smaller text beneath the offered price or by failing to provide enough information for customers.
As such, the named companies must stop running the misleading ads and ensure that future promotions make the possibility of mid-contract price increases both clear and prominent.
“All of the companies have fallen foul of guidance that sets stricter standards on the prominence advertisers must give to important information about future price rises,” said an ASA spokesperson speaking to the Guardian.
“Marketers are required to ensure that advertising for services that include mid-contract price increases … is presented clearly and prominently. The guidance also states that asterisks or links, which linked to information more than one ‘step’ below the price claim, were unlikely to give adequate weight to the significance of material information. We concluded that the ads are likely to mislead.”
The rulings follow pressure from Ofcom, which banned the practice of raising prices during contracts without fully informing consumers in advance. From January next year, all percentage-based price hikes in new contracts will be banned altogether.
Mid-contract price increases have been widespread in the telecom industry since for a number of years, but the sharp rise in inflation, which reached a 41-year high in 2022, intensified the impact on customers’ bills. While sectors like electricity and gas have stricter protections in place, the telecom industry has been slower to act.
The ASA have repeatedly urged companies to stop using small print or links that obscure vital pricing details. This intervention is part of a wider effort to ensure companies are upfront about the full cost of their services amid growing scrutiny over consumer protection during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
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