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ASA TalkTalk

Talk Talk rapped for advertising its unlimited broadband as ‘Britain's lowest priced’ after BT complains

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

July 9, 2014 | 2 min read

Talk Talk has had a press and internet advert banned after it made misleading claims relating to the price of its unlimited broadband, following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by rival BT.

The website ad promoted the package "Simply Broadband" and stated "Britain's lowest priced totally unlimited broadband”, while the press ad featured the claim "Britain's lowest priced packages from TalkTalk".

BT challenged whether the claim could be substantiated, while another complainant said they had seen a cheaper deal with a different provider.

TalkTalk explained that the claim "Britain's lowest price", was based upon a comparison of standard online pricing on a like for like basis against competitor "unlimited" broadband packages. It stated that the comparative basis was clear in all ads and the claim true, as no other service provider had a lower priced package.

Talk Talk added that with regard to the providers the complainant and BT had highlighted, which they believed offered a lower price, TalkTalk believed that both products were “materially different” as they had traffic management policies in place that slowed down some users.

The ASA however, disagreed and said that qualifying text was not sufficiently prominent, and that in the absence of any further explanatory text, most consumers would believe that, at the time the ad appeared, TalkTalk offered the cheapest unlimited broadband package in Britain.

Because that was not the case, the watchdog concluded that the claim was misleading and the ad was banned.

ASA TalkTalk

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