UK ad watchdog bans Vodafone broadband ad over misleading claims

In Voda's 'Great British broadband switch' campaign, the telco asserted in TV and accompanying online advertisements in March that BT customers could switch to Vodafone and get the same broadband but pay less.

As it transpired, the terms "same broadband" and "same broadband technology" were doing too much heavy lifting for both BT's and subsequently the ASA's liking.

BT said in its complaint that Vodafone operates its own core network, and therefore it was inaccurate to suggest that customers would be getting 'the same broadband' even though they both use networks operated by BT's wholesale arm, Openreach.

To support its original assertion, Vodafone referred to a technical report published by Ofcom in September 2023, in which the telco regulator found minimal differences between rival ISPs' services offered over Openreach.

"We reviewed the Ofcom report. We acknowledged the report's summary statement that comparable services which used the same Openreach infrastructure 'tended to perform similarly' and that they 'found few differences'," said the ASA in its ruling

"However, we considered it was therefore clear that there were some differences in performance; the services were not nearly identical in their performance. We also noted that the report's reference to finding 'few differences' between comparable services mentioned several specific providers including BT, but not Vodafone," it continued.

"We concluded the report's summary statement was therefore not adequate to support Vodafone's advertising claims that they provided the 'same broadband' and the 'same broadband technology' as BT, as interpreted by consumers."

The ASA also concluded Voda's ads suggested to the unwitting punter that the term 'same broadband' applied to the entire connection – including from the router to the end user's device – but in reality it only applied to the Openreach part of it.

BT was also nonplussed by Voda's assertion that "millions of BT customers across the UK are realising they can switch to Vodafone and get the same broadband for less", because it created the impression of a trend of BT customers switching to Voda.

In its defence, Voda said BT has millions of customers, and that its advertising campaign merely served as a moment of realisation for them, rather than being indicative of a trend.

That didn't wash with the ASA either, which ruled the claim as misleading. Consequently, the ads in their current form have been banned.

"We are delighted with the ASA's decision to uphold our complaint against the claims made by Vodafone in their switching campaign earlier this year," said a spokesperson on behalf of BT and its consumer unit EE.

"We're disappointed that Vodafone made inaccurate claims quoting misleading pricing comparisons and ignored the significant difference in the quality of broadband service from providers on the Openreach network," they said.

"We take serving our customers with a reliable, fast and secure connection very seriously. At BT and EE we've heavily invested in our network to create the best quality service for our customers. Not only that, we are also the first major UK provider to launch Wi-Fi 7, giving households higher speeds and better capacity to support devices in every corner of their home."

So far, Vodafone has kept quiet. It could be motivated by a desire to avoid any confrontation that might work against it when it comes to its proposed merger with Three.

While the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed concern about the tie-up's potential impact on competition, it suggested last week that behavioural remedies might be sufficient to green-light the deal.

It would mean that rather than force them to divest assets, Voda and Three would be permitted to merge provided they made binding commitments to things like price freezes and network investments.

As such, Vodafone is probably being careful when it comes to picking its battles.