Broadband provider's ads slammed over misleading price hikes

Virgin Media, BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and O2 have all had advertising complaints upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The complaints for each provider all focus around a lack of clarity or prominence of how mid-contract price hikes were displayed within adverts on their website.

These rulings come after the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) issued new guidance on how mid-contract price hikes must be communicated in December 2023.

Credit: BestForBest/Shutterstock.com

Complaints upheld

The ASA has upheld complaints over misleading adverts on the websites of six major broadband and mobile providers, including Virgin Media, BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and O2.

Each of the complaints focused on how the relevant mid-contract price increases for the broadband and/or mobile services were displayed.

Unlike most ASA complaints which look at paid-for advertising, such as TV or social media adverts, this ruling looks at how the providers were presenting information about their deals on their own websites, including the home pages.

For example, the complaint against Plusnet said that while they included the text "Increases 31 March" in the headline next to the monthly price, the actual price rise amount was further down the page in smaller font, and on subsequent pages in the customer journey, the full price rise details were only included under a subheading "Here's the legal bit" at the foot of the page.

The ASA upheld the complaint on the basis the price rise information wasn't clear or prominent enough, and should have been included more fully where the headline monthly price was given.

As we can see from the below screenshots, Plusnet has now updated this on their website:

Plusnet's home page in March 2024, before the ASA ruling

Plusnet's home page in October 2024, after the ASA ruling

BT and EE used similar wording and text placement to Plusnet, with "Increases 31 March" used, with full pricing information on increases under a legal bit subheading.

Virgin Media, O2 and TalkTalk's complaints all made use of asterisks which linked to information more than one 'step' below the price claim, and therefore the mid-contract price rise information wasn't considered to be prominent enough.

Ultimately, these rulings are part of a wider collection of work being undertaken by the ASA and CAP around mid-contract price hikes, and highlight the need for providers to ensure annual pricing policies are displayed much more equally alongside headline monthly prices.

Advertising guidance

We can see from CAP's Guidance on the presentation of mid-contract price increases in advertising for telecoms contracts, why each of the providers were investigated by the ASA.

Guiding principles used when the ASA is assessing adverts now include:

• Advertisers should not state or imply that a price will apply for the full minimum term of the contract, if that is not the case;
• Information indicating the presence or possibility of a price rise has equal prominence with the price claim;
• Information about the nature of the price rise is featured prominently within the main copy of the ad, and no lower than one 'step' down below the information signalling the price increase (e.g. if the price is in the headline, the qualifying price rise should be in the subheading).

CAP's guidance also points out that approaches that are unlikely to give adequate weight include when advertisers use:

• An asterisk linking to information more than one 'step' below the price claim;
• A link that has to be clicked on or hovered over with a cursor in order to access the information.

There are of course more guidelines for advertisers to follow, however, these are main rules which seem to have been overlooked in this instance.

Ofcom ban

Mid-contract price rises have come under scrutiny in the last couple of years, after inflation soared and left mobile and broadband customers with annual price rises as high as 17.3% in April 2023.

Ofcom's investigation into the practice subsequently led to a ban of inflation-linked and percentage-based mid-contract price rises, with providers having to move to pounds and pence-based increases from January 2025.

Yet, Ofcom and the ASA/CAP are separate Government bodies, which regulate different aspects of mobile and broadband deals, with CAP's Guidance on advertising mid-contract price hikes coming into effect from December 2023, while Ofcom's ruling on contracts will be in place from the start of next year.

Both the regulator and the ASA's work are making strides in helping to protect consumers, with many providers already moving to easier to understand £3 annual price rises for broadband contracts.

The downside is however, this has locked in price rises of 12% on a broadband bill of £25 per month, which is equivalent to an inflationary increase of 8.1% (+3.9%). Despite the fact the Consumer Price Index (CPI) now stands at just 2.2%.