ASA Adjudication on Vodafone Ltd

Ad

A poster, for Vodafone's internet service via mobile phones, stated "Any website, any time. £7.50 a month. Make the most of now." Small-print in the bottom left-hand corner stated "Handset dependent. Includes 120MB UK data allowance per month. Terms apply. See www.vodafone.co.uk for details".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied Vodafone offered unlimited use for £7.50 a month.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Vodafone UK Ltd (Vodafone) said the ad was intended to convey that consumers could access any site when they had their phone with them and could buy the Mobile Browsing pack costing £7.50 a month to do this.

Vodafone said careful thought was given to the language in the ad so as to emphasise the mobility of the service whilst not implying they could guarantee 100% geographical coverage and said they considered "Any website, any time" did not imply unlimited data usage. They said the word "any" meant "some, or even the smallest amount of" and believed consumers would interpret the ad according to its intended meaning, which was that the internet would be accessible wherever they were, for example on the bus or in the park.

Vodafone did not believe their headline referred to, or implied, duration of use and said the small-print in their ad made the data allowance clear. They said the service was not unlimited and there was no intention to advertise it as such.

Assessment

Upheld

We noted the ad was for internet access through a mobile phone. We considered that, in this context, most consumers would understand the claim "Any website, any time" to refer to access to the internet through a mobile phone wherever they happened to be during their day. However, we considered that consumers would also infer from the headline claim that they could access the internet as often as they liked for £7.50 a month.

We noted there was a disclaimer stating "120MB UK data allowance per month" at the bottom of the ad, but considered that this was not prominent enough to avoid being overlooked and also that it contradicted the impression created by the headline claim. We considered that the download allowance was a significant condition attached to the service and was likely to influence consumers' decisions about whether to purchase the product. Because that information was not stated in, or immediately next to, the headline claim, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead about the nature of the service being offered.

The ad breached CAP Code 7.1 (Truthfulness). We also investigated under 3.1 (Substantiation) but did not find it in breach.

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)