ASA Bans EE Broadband Ad After Sky UK and Vodafone Complain
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a digital poster advert for EE’s fixed broadband packages after several rival providers, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband), complained that part of its claims were misleading because they were not verifiable.
The poster, which was seen on 5th June 2025 and 31st October 2025, contained two headline claims in large print – “MORE PEOPLE ARE CHOOSING EE BROADBAND” and “SWITCH TO THE UK’S FASTEST GROWING BROADBAND PROVIDER”. Small text at the foot of the ad stated “To verify see ee.co.uk/claims”.
Both Sky UK and Vodafone complained the advert was “misleading” on two grounds – 1) because they understood the claims did not take into account customers who had migrated from one brand to another within the BT Group; and, 2) it was not verifiable. But the ASA rejected the first (1) complaint because they said the evidence supported EE’s claim, although they upheld the second (2) complaint over whether the broader claims were verifiable.
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ASA Ruling Ref: G25-1321697 EE Ltd
Because the ad initially did not link to any relevant verification information, and the document that was later added initially contained insufficient information to understand the nature of the comparison, and because the verification page contained an additional outdated document and did not provide a clear route to verify the claims, we concluded that the ad did not meet the requirements for verifiability.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.34 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
The full ruling is quite a laborious read and centres a lot on the data that EE provided (or didn’t provide) to verify the claim, but we think the key summary above is enough to cover the main points. As usual the ASA told EE to stop being naughty and to in future “ensure that their comparative claims were verifiable“.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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This is one I have been following for a while.
Ever since a friend of mine (consumer/residential customer) was forced to migrate from BT to EE because, according to BT, only EE were able to offer a bundle that contain all of the products they wanted. Which makes no logical sense to me.
Since hearing that I had been watching those EE adverts thinking “yes, that is technically correct, but BT are obviously forcing consumer/residential customers onto EE whether they like it or not. I wonder when someone is going to complain”.
And here we are, with the ASA ignoring BT’s manipulation of the market but accepting there is no verifiable evidence to back up their claim.
Is it just me or does that seem perversely twisted?
Also, we all know BT is pushing the EE brand as their group’s big consumer/residential brand, and is seemingly phasing out the BT brand for those customers. So why have BT recently started a huge BT brand advertising campaign? I just don’t get it.
New CEO decided to keep and revive the BT brand.
There’s been a lot of poor sales tactics that have been encouraged within the company.
They tried it with me when all I wanted was a second DV handset. Called. Asked for the handset – no, no replacement, secondary. Then told it was ordered and I’ll get a new EE router and account information…
They argued it was the only way to get a new handset and only EE do DV. I pointed out what buttons to push to order the handset without offering me a new contract. “Do…. you work here?” Yes. Panic and transfer to someone else.
They push the sales tactics on all divisions: Technical support are outright advised to lie and cheat customers. EE are a horrific company now. Deserve everything they get
“Fastest growing” or “fastest-growing”?
Not only a bad ad, but an illiterate one.
State of the nation in a nutshell.
Verifyable is spelt verifiable.
So an advert which was seen in June 2025 and October 2025, was misleading, but only got banned in July 2026 by the ASA? What use is It now to ban something that’s been on display for over a year? ASA slow as usual to the point of being a pointless organisation.
After EE complained on Vodafone’s “The Nations Network” ASA complaint. Just shows blatant revenge towards each other.