Authors: Tim Clark, Partner & Andrew Barling, Senior Associate
Following continuing complaints by consumers in relation to differences between the advertised NBN service speeds and those actually experienced by consumers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) continues to monitor the claims made by retail carriage service providers (RSPs) and has now taken action against one RSP.
By way of background, on 21 August 2017, the ACCC published guidance, Broadband speed claims: Industry guidance (ACCC Guide) for RSPs on how they should advertise speeds for their fixed-line broadband services. We have previously discussed the ACCC Guide in more detail. A key message from the ACCC Guide was that RSPs should indicate, in broadband plan descriptions and in advertising them, the speeds at which plans typically operate during the busy evening period (7pm-11pm). The ACCC Guide warned against simply repeating the theoretical maximum speeds from the NBN (or other wholesale service). If the maximum speeds were used, they should be carefully and clearly qualified.
Since publishing the ACCC Guide, the ACCC has received at least eight court-enforceable undertakings from various RSPs in relation to speed claims including Telstra, Optus, TPG, iiNet, Internode, Dodo, Primus Telecommunications and M2 Commander.
MyRepublic case
In the latest round of action taken by the ACCC, NBN reseller, MyRepublic Pty Ltd (MyRepublic), was fined $25,200 for making false or misleading representations in relation to its NBN services.
Between December 2017 and April 2018, MyRepublic had marketed its NBN services as “up to nbnTM100 Speed Tier” and “nbnTM50 Speed Tier”. The ACCC considered that these statements would likely mislead consumers into believing that they would be able to obtain broadband internet speeds of, or close to, 100Mbps and 50Mbps at all, or almost all, times, when this was not the case.
The ACCC also considered that fine print disclaimers in advertising by MyRepublic were insufficient as they were not sufficiently prominent or clear. Examples of the fine print disclaimers used on MyRepublic’s website banners can be seen on the ACCC’s news page on the ACCC’s news page.
