Two complaints about promotional material for Telefonica’s O2 Travel service have been upheld by the UK Advertising Standards Authority.
O2 Travel offers customers a flat daily rate of £1.99 for a mobile data allowance when travelling abroad in certain countries within Europe. However, the ASA ruled that certain terms and conditions hasn’t been made clear in O2’s ads.
An in-flight magazine ad promoted O2 Travel without mentioning the 15MB daily limit, while the O2 website promoted a collection of apps and services for travellers but didn’t explain how much data these could use.
Telefónica UK said the in-flight magazine problem was due to “an oversight on their or their agencies part” and that changes to the web site hadn’t been made “due to an error”. It also said O2 customers could use a combination of the illustrated functions in the web ad without exceeding their daily allowance.
In its ruling, the ASA noted that consumers may have understood from the web ad that they could use the referenced functions without exceeding their daily allowance. Because this wasn’t the case, it concluded the ad was misleading.
[ASA adjudication]