ASA Ban Virgin Media Gig1 Fibre Ads Over Insufficient Comparison UPDATE

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has responded to a BT complaint by banning a UK website and TV advert for Virgin Media’s Gig1 Fibre broadband package, which saw the operator promote itself as the “UK’s fastest major broadband provider“, after they failed to include sufficient information to verify their comparisons.

BT’s complaint related to two adverts that were seen in August 2021. The rival ISP questioned whether Virgin Media’s claim of being “the UK’s fastest major broadband provider” was misleading and could be substantiated. On top of that, they also questioned whether that claim was “verifiable.”

The ASA found that the evidence “substantiated” that the average download speed (1130Mbps) of Virgin Media’s Gig1 Fibre service was in fact “faster than other major broadband providers” – emphasis on the ‘major‘ (i.e. faster alternative networks didn’t count due to limited coverage) – and thus concluded that the core claim was “not misleading“.

Nevertheless, both adverts still ended up being pulled because the ASA found that they didn’t include sufficient information to allow consumers and competitors to verify the comparisons made in their advertising.

ASA Ruling (REF: A21-1121986 Virgin Media Ltd)

The CAP and BCAP Codes required comparisons with identifiable competitors to be verifiable. That meant that an ad which featured a comparison with an identifiable competitor or competitors needed to include, or direct a consumer to, sufficient information to allow them to understand the comparison, and be able to check the claims were accurate.

Ad (a) included the table which detailed the average download speed for Virgin Media’s Gig1 Fibre service and the fastest average download speed figures for BT, EE, Plusnet, Post Office, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone. Ad (b) did not include that information but did include a URL which took viewers to ad (a). We considered that ad (b) therefore adequately signposted viewers to where they could find more detailed information about the comparison.

We considered that Virgin Media did not necessarily need to make available the underlying data that had been used to calculate the median download speed of their Gig1 Fibre service. However, we considered that in order for consumers to verify the comparison, further information should be provided in ad (a) about the methodology used to calculate the figure for Virgin Media’s own speed, and to clarify the source of information for the download speeds for the other broadband providers. Because that had not been provided, we concluded the verification information was not sufficient to allow consumers or competitors to understand the comparison, and as such, the claim as it appeared in both ads (a) and (b) was not verifiable.

Admittedly, the outcome of that first complaint might have been different had the advert focused on upload speeds instead of downloads, which is 52Mbps (average) on Virgin Media’s Gig1 Fibre package (i.e. well below what most rival FTTP networks can offer). On the other hand, Virgin’s package can reach 15.5 million homes, while rival FTTP networks still have a long way to go to catch up with that.

UPDATE 11:16am

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “As the only ISP where gigabit broadband actually means gigabit speeds, it’s great to have confirmation, should it be needed, that we are the country’s fastest major broadband provider.”