Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced in a multi-party arrangement, telecommunications industry leaders Telstra, Vodafone Hutchison and Optus have given a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC that they will review and improve their advertising practices so that consumers are better informed about the telecommunications products and services they offer.

"The broader telecommunications industry has for some time walked a fine line between compliant and non compliant advertising. The ACCC welcomes the co-operation of the three major carriers in clearly articulating what is fair to consumers and what is not, and their commitment to the basic principle of truth in advertising," ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said.

The ACCC identified the 12 most prevalent types of potentially misleading conduct made in telecommunications, and the three industry leaders have undertaken that their advertising will not make these claims in circumstances where they are likely to be misleading to consumers.

Some of the poor practices the agreement covers are:

• Use of terms such as 'free', 'unlimited', 'no exceptions', 'no exclusions' or 'no catches' when this is not the case;
• Headline price offers in the form of "price per minute" for mobile phones and phone cards when there are other fees/charges which are not clearly disclosed; and
• Headline claims relating to price, data allowances, total time allowances, speeds and network coverage where the claims cannot generally be sustained for all consumers.

17 September, 2009