ASA sides with BT in Wanadoo war of words

A recent ad by Wanadoo blaming BT for its upgrade fee has drawn the ire of the telco - and a reprimand from the advertising watchdog.

The marketing material in question - a print advertising campaign - carried the legend: "Dear BT... OK, we may have to charge £20 to upgrade an existing customer to 2 Meg - but you know why that is don't you? Yes, it's because you folks at BT charge us to do it. Still local loop unbundling will sort that issue out won't it?" The ad was 'signed' "your friends at Wanadoo".

BT complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the ad was "misleading and denigratory", as the telco charges between £5 and £11 to its competitors, whereas the ad may cause people to think the whole £20 charge was down to BT.

Wanadoo is charged £11 plus VAT by BT for the upgrade but said some of remaining £6.02 was passed onto the customers for Wanadoo's costs in administering the charge.

Wanadoo also said the ad showed that BT charged an amount of money but didn't state BT was responsible for the whole thing.

The ASA disagreed, saying customers would be misled into believing the whole charge was due to BT and told Wanadoo not to repeat the claim.