Ad description
An email for Grain Connect, a broadband company, seen on 6 March 2026, featured a heading which said, “IMPORTANT NEWS: Virgin Media are taking over YouFibre & BRSK”. Text below stated, “Got friends with YouFibre or BRSK? Help them escape the price rise rip-off and get a month of free broadband, each! What’s happening? YouFibre & BRSK are set to be taken over by Virgin Media. If your friends or neighbours chose them to avoid big-brand pricing and in-contract price rises… then this will feel like they’re being dragged back to square one. How to be a good friend As a Grain customer, your unique referral code is: LGGIBCIY. Share it with your friends and when they switch to Grain, you’ll both get a month of free service, each. And if they’re stuck in a contract? Don’t worry - we can help with that too”. Further text at the end of the email stated “Share your code. Save your friend. Enjoy your free month”.
The email included a link to the Grain Connect website.
Issue
YouFibre challenged whether the ad made misleading price rise claims about an identifiable competitor.
Response
Grain Connect Ltd said the ad was a one-off promotional email sent only to existing customers who had opted in to receive marketing communications.
They said the email did not state that YouFibre was introducing, or planned to introduce, mid-contract price rises. They said the references to “price rise rip-off” and to consumers choosing providers to avoid “big-brand pricing and in-contract price rises” were contextual and comparative, rather than factual claims about YouFibre’s current or future pricing policy.
Grain Connect said the email referred instead to the pricing practices of larger providers such as Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). They said VMO2 historically applied in-contract price rises and that its published terms and conditions made clear that such rises applied to its fixed-term contracts.
They said YouFibre was being taken over by VMO2. They believed that, once YouFibre became a VMO2 subsidiary, it might no longer be in a position to prevent VMO2 introducing in-contract price rises in future, which they said formed part of the context for the claims in the ad.
Grain Connect said the email did not state that YouFibre customers would become VMO2 customers or be moved onto VMO2 contracts. They said the claims that VMO2 was “taking over” YouFibre and that it was “set to be taken over”, reflected a publicly announced acquisition.
They said the email referred only to a change in ownership and did not state that existing customer contracts would immediately change. They said that YouFibre continuing to operate as a brand after the acquisition would not make the reference to a takeover inaccurate.
Grain Connect also said the claims reflected their view about the likely consequences of the acquisition. They said that opinion was based in part on VMO2’s existing pricing practices, including what they said were VMO2’s published terms and conditions, which they said made clear that in-contract price rises applied to its fixed-term contracts.
They also referred to historical public statements about YouFibre and changes involving the BRSK brand. For example, they said the CEO of YouFibre had previously stated that BRSK would evolve into a full-service Internet Service Provider (ISP) alongside YouFibre, but that later reports indicated that BRSK customers were to be migrated to YouFibre and that the BRSK brand was being replaced. Grain Connect said those matters informed their view of the likely effect of the acquisition on customers and pricing practices.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that YouFibre was the subject of a publicly announced acquisition by VMO2. We also understood that BRSK had previously been integrated into the YouFibre brand. The ad stated, “Virgin Media are taking over YouFibre & BRSK” and “YouFibre & BRSK are set to be taken over by Virgin Media”. The ad went on to state, “Help them escape the price rise rip-off” by avoiding “big-brand pricing and in-contract price rises”.
We considered that, because YouFibre was named in the ad, consumers would understand the claims as a comparison with an identifiable competitor. In that context, the claims were likely to be understood as objective claims about the likelihood of in-contract price rises following the takeover.
We acknowledged Grain Connect’s view that the references to “price rise rip-off” and “big-brand pricing and in-contract price rises” were intended as comparative claims about larger providers such as VMO2, rather than direct claims about YouFibre’s existing or future pricing policy. However, we considered that consumers were likely to understand the claims together, rather than as separate statements. We therefore considered that consumers were likely to interpret the ad to mean that, as a result of the takeover, YouFibre customers would face the type of pricing associated with VMO2, including in-contract price rises. We therefore expected to see evidence that YouFibre would, following the takeover, introduce in-contract price rises.
We understood that existing YouFibre customers would not be transferred onto VMO2 contracts. We therefore considered that Grain Connect’s evidence about VMO2’s own published terms and conditions was not relevant to the claim consumers were likely to take from the ad. We also had not seen evidence that, following the acquisition, YouFibre would cease to operate as a brand, or that YouFibre customers, including former BRSK customers, would move off their existing contracts and become subject to in-contract price rises.
Because we had not seen evidence that YouFibre customers would, as a result of the takeover, face price rises, including in-contract price rises, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), and 3.32 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Grain Connect Ltd to ensure that future ads did not make misleading price rise claims about an identifiable competitor.
