The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a online Sky Business Broadband ad after complaints by rival firm BT that it was ‘misleading’ customers over price comparisons.
Displayed in January of this year, the ad claimed that customers could “SAVE OVER £750 vs BT Business” by switching to Sky, with smaller text underneath reading “Comparison of Sky Connect’s Essential offer price vs BT Business’ Essential standard price*.”
BT’s complaint centred around the fact that its Business Essential package was available at a lower promo price than its standard price at the time of ad’s publication, and that Sky’s comparison could be considered ‘misleading’ as a result.
In its defence Sky pointed out that it was not legally required to compare to a competitors current pricing, but this was rejected by the ASA which highlighted that “Marketers should normally compare their promotional prices with their competitors’ promotional prices,” and that this should be clearly stated if not the case.
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Upholding BT’s complaint the ASA said: “Although we acknowledged that the ad stated that the comparison was between an offer price and a standard price, we understood that at the time the ad appeared and throughout the offer period, the BT Business Essential package was also on promotion and was therefore not available to purchase at that standard price.
“We acknowledged that BT customers who were currently paying the standard price and who chose to switch to the Sky package at the offer price would achieve the saving. We considered, however, that the ad did not reference making a switch and had not been directed solely at existing BT business customers who were paying BT’s standard price for their broadband. Therefore, some business consumers seeing the ad would not have been existing BT customers.
Concluding, it said: We considered that, in the absence of further, more prominent, clarifying information, business consumers would be likely to understand that BT’s package was only available at its standard price at that time and not on promotion. They would therefore have expected to make a saving of £750 by choosing Sky’s package over BT’s.
