ASA Ban Misleading Vodafone UK Phone Buy-Back Ads After Sky Complain

A complaint by Sky (Sky Mobile) has resulted in the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banning a multitude of Vodafone’s adverts for misleadingly claiming to offer the “UK’s only Phone Buy-Back Guarantee“, which is despite the fact that they are not the only UK company to guarantee to buy back the phones they sold.

The mobile operator’s claim of offering “The UK’s only Phone Buy-Back Guarantee” appeared in a variety of webpage, press, Twitter, TV and radio adverts that were examined during September 2022. But Sky UK, which also runs a similar return and recycle scheme, promptly complained that Vodafone “did not buy back devices in all circumstances and was not the only UK company to guarantee to buy back the phones it sold.”

After an investigation, the ASA upheld Sky’s complaint and ruled that Vodafone’s adverts were misleading.

ASA Ruling Ref: A22-1171703 Vodafone Ltd

“The ads must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Vodafone Ltd to ensure that future advertising for the buy-back guarantee made sufficiently clear that it related to a trade-in price agreed at the point of sale on a particular Vodafone phone, offered in credit and did not suggest that Vodafone was the only UK provider to offer a general buy-back or trade-in scheme, unless they held objective comparative evidence in support of that claim.”

Not that any of this has stopped Vodafone from continuing to use the same claim on their related webpage this morning (here).