Talk Talk has become the latest in a line of broadband service providers to get a roasting from the Advertising Standards Agency

The UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Agency, has pulled up another broadband service provider over advertising following a complaint from rival broadband provider BT. Talk Talk is the latest in a line of broadband service provider that has been pulled up by the advertising watchdog over advertising. This follows the provider’s advertisement for ‘free’ broadband, which compare the ‘free’ service to the cost of broadband service from BT.

Communications giant BT complained because the pre-existing Talk3 package with no broadband is a twelve month contract. However, the ‘free broadband’ package is subject to an eighteen month contract, and BT states that this means that service is not actually free. BT officials branded the advertisement misleading and filed a complaint against Talk Talk.

In a statement the Advertising Standards Agency stated: “We considered, however, that in order to describe the broadband element added to Talk 3 as “free”, TalkTalk would have to be able to demonstrate that they had added it as an extra element to an existing product at no extra cost or burden on the consumer. Because the contractual agreement of ‘Talk 3 with free broadband’ was more onerous than that of its call plan only predecessor Talk 3, we considered that that package should be classed as ‘new’. The broadband element was, therefore, an intrinsic element of a new package with an 18-month contract obligation.”

The regulator therefore found that Talk Talk was in breach of regulations with regards to codes relating to free offers and truthfulness, but did also add that it believed that Talk Talk had acted in good faith when the advertisement was produced and run.