ASA slams Virgin Media for misleading broadband ads after BT challenge

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints brought against Virgin Media by its broadband rival BT accusing the firm of running misleading print and TV adverts for its broadband services.

The ASA agreed with BT that several statements made by Virgin Media comparing its service to other providers based on figures from Ofcom were misleading as they were not like-for-like services.

"Because of the variety of products and speeds that were available from the providers whose services were compared in the ads, we considered the ads needed to state prominently which services were being compared," the ASA said in the ruling.

"We noted that this information was stated in footnote text, but considered it needed to be stated more prominently."

Members of the public also filed complaints with the ASA over the adverts, questioning Virgin Media's claim that its broadband is the "fastest in the UK", which the ASA also upheld.

"We noted that there were localised instances of niche providers or other ISPs providing trial products to a limited number of consumers that offered speeds that were faster than Virgin's," the ruling said.

"Because it was possible for customers in some localised areas to obtain a faster download speed, we concluded that such an absolute claim was misleading."

Based on the rulings, the adverts cannot be run again in their current form.

Responding to the ruling John Petter, managing director for the consumer arm of BT Retail, said, "BT welcomes yet another ASA ruling on Virgin Media's misleading advertising".

Virgin Media was defiant, however, insisting that its service dramatically outperforms its key rivals, and reiterating calls for a change in the way broadband is marketed.

"Virgin Media's up to 10Mbit/s broadband service delivers over 9.5Mbit/s on average, proven by Ofcom. BT's up to 8Mbit/s broadband delivers around 4.5Mbit/s, and even its up to 20Mbit/s service delivers just 8Mbit/s on average," a spokesperson said.

"Unlike our DSL competitors, fibre optic broadband from Virgin Media delivers the speeds we promise to millions of UK homes, and we support the calls for change in broadband advertising."

BT and Virgin Media have run foul of the ASA on previous occasions, and both ISPs are clearly still keen to score points off each other as they compete for number one status in the UK broadband market.