ASA Adjudication on Vodafone UK Ltd

Ad

A radio ad for Vodafone's Sharetime plan claimed "no charge for calling your company's mobiles or landlines within the UK". It ended with the disclaimer "Subject to status and minimum contract. Conditions apply."

Issue

T-Mobile complained that the claim was misleading because it implied the calls were free when in fact they were inclusive; consumers were charged a monthly fee that included the cost of the calls.

Response

Vodafone said the claim did not imply that the calls were free.  They said business customers would be aware that there was a monthly charge for the package and said the disclaimer "subject to ... minimum contract" reinforced this.  They said, in future, they would use the claim "no extra charge" in all their advertising.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) said listeners would interpret the claim as meaning that there was no charge for the calls at the time they were made.  They said potential customers were business users only, who would understand the nature of the advertised product and that there would be a monthly charge.

Assessment

Complaint upheld

The ASA noted the calls were not described as free.  However, we considered that the claim "no charge for calling your company's mobiles or landlines within the UK" gave the misleading impression that these calls were free when in fact they were inclusive.  We welcomed Vodafone's decision to amend the claim in future ads.

Action

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2, rule 3 (Misleadingness) and the spirit of rule 20 (Use of the word 'free').