Virgin Media ordered to pull wi-fi ad after Vodafone complaint

Vodafone has forced Virgin Media to withdraw an ad that claimed “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider”.

Vodafone complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the ad, which ran in July, was misleading and could be not be substantiated. The ASA agreed and ordered Virgin Media to pull the ad and ensure that “they did not imply that they guaranteed the fastest WiFi service of all major broadband providers if that was not the case”.

“The ad contravened the rule over comparisons with identifiable competitors” – ASA

The ad on, www.virginmedia.com featured the headline text that stated “Our WiFi Guarantee”. Smaller text underneath stated “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider”. A box § underneath invited users to input their postcode and click to “Check availability”.

Text on the page stated “Virgin Fibre areas only. WiFi Guarantee available with M50 broadband or faster. £8p/m extra or included with Gig1 or Volt. At least 30Mbps download speeds in every room or £100 one-off credit. Up to 3 WiFi Pods if needed. Exclusions & legal stuff apply. Fastest WiFi guarantee of major UK ISPs. See virginmedia.com/legal/wifi.”

Under the heading “Our WiFi guarantee with WiFi Max”, text stated “With WiFi Max, we want to make sure you’ll enjoy download speeds of at least 30Mbps in every room – if you don’t, we’ll send you one of our signal boosting mesh WiFi Pods. If that doesn’t do the job, we’ll send you up to a total of 3. We’re so confident in this technology that we’ve launched our WiFi guarantee. This means if you don’t get download speeds of at least 30Mbps in every room, and our WiFi Pods don’t do the trick, we’ll pop £100 credit onto your next bill”.

Virgin Media’s defence was that a large number of major broadband providers promoted WiFi guarantees to consumers. These guarantees provided reassurance to customers that a certain minimum level of WiFi service would be received in each room of the customer’s home, and if that minimum level was not met they would receive an entitlement. Their WiFi Guarantee promised customers at least 30Mbps download speeds in every room, backed up by up to 3 mesh WiFi pods (which provided a signal boost if required), and if the minimum speed was still not met they would receive a one-off £100 credit. This minimum speed threshold was three times that of Vodafone’s WiFi guarantee, and the highest of any major provider, therefore making it “the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider”.

Qualifying text underneath the claim explained the terms of their guarantee and included a link to verify the comparison. They were not making a broad performance claim that they provided the fastest WiFi. They believed that consumers would have read the claim “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider” as they intended, and would not have ignored the reference to “guarantee” in the claim, nor the qualifying explanation about the scope of the guarantee, and therefore would not have been misled.

The details provided on the verification page were extensive and allowed the consumer to understand fully the scope of Virgin Media and their competitors’ guarantees.

The ASA considered consumers would understand the claim “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider” to mean that Virgin Media guaranteed they offered the fastest WiFi service of any major broadband provider.

Virgin Media explained that, rather than being a claim that they offered the fastest WiFi, the claim related to their “Wifi Guarantee”. This meant that customers with WiFi Max would be sent up to three signal boosting WiFi pods if they did not obtain download speeds of at least 30 Mbps in every room. If that was unsuccessful, they would receive a one off credit of £100. Other broadband providers also offered similar Wifi guarantees, but they related to speeds of less than 30 Mbps. Virgin Media therefore considered the claim was not misleading. On that basis, they did not provide comparative evidence about the speed of their WiFi and that of the other major providers.

“We considered that the headline claim should have been more clearly worded” – ASA

The ASA added:

“We considered that while some consumers may have been aware of WiFi guarantees, many would not. The difference between guaranteeing the highest speed and offering a guarantee which promised action by the advertiser if a minimum speed was not met was a subtle one and required clear explanation to ensure that consumers were not misled about what was being offered.

“We did not consider that the headline claim “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider” would have been understood as Virgin Media intended by consumers, and that, as set out above, a significant proportion would understand it to mean that Virgin Media guaranteed they offered the fastest WiFi service of any major broadband provider.

“We acknowledged that the ad included further information about the WiFi guarantee which sought to provide more detail on what they were guaranteeing and how the guarantee worked. However, we considered that this was insufficient to override the impression from the claim that Virgin Media offered the fastest WiFi of the major providers.

“We also noted that a box immediately underneath the headline claim “Get the fastest WiFi Guarantee of any major provider” at the top of the page invited users to input their postcode and click to “Check availability”, and that consumers were therefore encouraged to take action on the basis of the claim, notwithstanding that qualifying information appeared underneath.

“We considered that the headline claim should have been more clearly worded and immediately qualified to ensure that consumers understood the nature of the guarantee. Therefore, because the claim had not been substantiated as it would be understood by consumers, we concluded that the ad was misleading”.