Australia - Optus was found to be "tricky" in advertising brodband plans

[abc] The Federal Court has found Optus breached the Trade Practices Act and engaged in "misleading and tricky" advertising.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Optus to court over two advertising campaigns, offering consumers broadband internet plans.

Optus had offered consumers data packages with download limits for peak and off-peak times.

But Optus did not tell customers that if they exceeded their peak data allowance, their off-peak data would be reduced to just 64 kilobytes per second.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says it is a serious breach of the Trade Practices Act.

"Now this is a case, frankly, where we think Optus stepped over the line and took steps that we think engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct," he said.

Mr Samuel says companies that engage in deceptive advertising will face the full force of the law.

He says the three major telecommunication companies had previously entered into court-enforcable agreements with the ACCC that they would improve their advertising practices.

"And then lo and behold we find we have this kind of advertising going on, which is a race to the bottom in terms of advertising practices," he said.

Federal Court Justice Nye Perram has ordered an injunction on the ads.

Financial penalties will be handed down at a later date.

An Optus spokesperson says the company never intended to mislead customers.

"Optus always strives to provide our customers with the best products and services," the spokesperson said.

"It is never our intention to mislead our customers and we have corrected the advertising in question to make it clearer.

"We will continue to work with our customers to ensure they are completely satisfied with Optus."

Court finds Optus broadband ads 'misleading, tricky'