Telecommunications

The eir.ie homepage advertised an offer on their sports channel bundle stating:

“The Ultimate Sports Bundle
Sky Sports + Eir Sports + BT Sports “

In a circle beside the offer it stated:
“All for only €1 a month”.

The word ‘buy’ was presented at the bottom in a circular and clicking opened another webpage with details of the bundles. Included in the details was the following text:
“Add Sky Sports 1 – 5 for €1 per month for six months, €40 per month thereafter”.

The complainant considered the advertising to be misleading as he was unable to find the real price of the offer and felt he was forced to click into the page to find out what was being offered.

The advertiser stated that the details of all offers available, including the “€1 Ultimate Sport Bundle” were found in their bundles pages, which a customer would review prior to making any purchase or committing to any contract. They said that it was not feasible to include all product details and pricing on their homepage due to space and ease of comprehension by customers. They said that the banner referenced by the complainant was not an advertisement in isolation, but rather formed part of their website, which had contained all pertinent offer details.

Finally, they said that it was not their intention to mislead customers, but rather to provide them with all relevant information and offers in a simple and easy to follow journey.


FURTHER INFORMATION:
The Executive noted that the advertising homepage was amended some days after the complaint was received to clarify that the bundle was €1 for six months.

Complaint Upheld

The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee acknowledged that the homepage had been amended to clarify that the €1 offer was for 6 months only. While the Committee noted that a consumer would have to click on the ‘buy’ button in order to place an order, on doing this they would then see that to be able to purchase the sports bundle for €1, they would actually have to purchase a broadband and TV bundle. In view of the fact that the homepage offer made no indication that the sports bundle could only be purchased as part of a broadband bundle, then the Committee considered that the advertising was in breach of Sections 4.22, 5.5, 5.15 and 5.16 of the Code.

ACTION REQUIRED: The advertisement should not reappear in its current form.