Ad description

A website for a mobile phone network, www.lycamobile.co.uk, outlined details of a 4G data plan and featured text which stated "UNLIMITED 4G DATA With 500 UK minutes & unlimited UK texts Only £12 per month".

Issue

Seven complainants, which included Hutchison 3G UK Ltd t/a 3 challenged whether the claim "UNLIMITED 4G DATA" was misleading and could be substantiated.

Response

Lycamobile UK Ltd t/a lycamobile.co.uk did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by lycamobile.co.uk's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule  1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code.  (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and we told them to do so in future.

lycamobile.co.uk had not provided evidence to substantiate the claim "UNLIMITED 4G DATA" in relation to their data plan and we therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.    3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (Misleading advertising),  3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.  (Substantiation) and  3.9 3.9 Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.  (Qualification).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Lycamobile UK Ltd not to claim a data plan was "unlimited" unless they held evidence to support the claim. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.7     3.1     3.3     3.7     3.9    


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