CAP News

Telecommunications and Utilities Surveys 2007 published

13 September 2007

The Compliance Team recently undertook surveys into the Telecommunications and Utilities sectors. The objectives of the surveys were to assess compliance rates, ensure a level playing field for marketers and identify problems and bring them to the attention of the ASA or CAP. The Telecommunications survey reported a compliance rate of 93%; the Utilities Survey a lower rate of 87%.

The Utilities Survey looked at 203 different non-broadcast and online advertisements that appeared in January and February 2007; of those, 26 advertisements breached the Code, a breach rate of 13%. Although that is higher than it would like, the Compliance team identified only seven separate causes of breach. The outcome is therefore arguably more encouraging than the headline figure suggests. Switching companies were responsible for half the breaches but the advertisers fully co-operated when contacted by the Compliance team. The same can be said for solar energy advertisers, who were also willing to work with CAP to eradicate breaches. The results of the Utilities Survey suggest that two main problems exist, which the Compliance team will address in its sector compliance work.

The Telecommunications Survey assessed advertisements against the recently updated Telecommunications Marketing Help Note. The latest update takes into account technological developments in the industry as well as recently published ASA Council rulings on complaints. The basic principles of the Help Note remain the same: comparisons should be clear and fair; ads targeted at consumers should quote VAT-inclusive prices; footnotes should be legible and claims should not exaggerate the availability or extent of benefits likely to be obtained.

The survey looked at a representative sample of 209 different broadcast and non-broadcast advertisements and found 22 breaches, a compliance rate of 93%. The wrongful advertising of inclusive mobile phone handsets as “free” accounted for all the breaches. In July 2006, the ASA published an adjudication about use of the word “free” that, when applied to mobile phone packages, could mean that the phone element is considered inclusive, not “free”. The ramifications of that adjudication need to be explained fully to the Telecommunications sector.

The small number of problems in both surveys was encouraging and will enable the Compliance team to focus on improving code compliance in the telecommunications and utilities sectors even further.