It’s a bittersweet day for iiNet. After being announced as the first unmetered partner for Netflix, it has been revealed the ISP has to pay the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) the handsome sum of $204,000 over dodgy Naked Broadband ads.
The ACCC fined the ISP giant after it “had reasonable grounds to believe that iiNet’s advertisements contravened the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) by failing to prominently state the total minimum price of the service,” it said in a statement today.
The ads appeared in Melbourne in 2014, on both a billboard and a tram (pictured above) in the CBD. According to the ACCC, the 250GB plan advertised for $69.95 per month did not display the total minimum price “in a prominent way, as required by [Australian Consumer Law]”.
The total $204,000 fine represents two infringement notices of $102,000 each.
“Prominence means that the total minimum price can be easily seen and strikes the attention of the consumer. In assessing whether the total minimum price is prominent, it is important to consider the context in which the advertisement appears — for example if the advertisement is on a moving vehicle, where consumers may only be able to see the advertisement momentarily,” ACCC chairman, Rod Sims said today.