A recent Vodacom television commercial promoting its ‘lowest data tariffs’ came under fire after a consumer, Mr ND Thomas, lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA). <\/p>\n
According to Thomas the commercial is misleading as it states that Vodacom’s data tariffs are the lowest while other service providers charge substantially less.<\/p>\n
MTN recently reduced their data prices to fall in line with Vodacom’s rates while Cell C undercut both Vodacom and MTN with their latest price reductions. Virgin Mobile’s out-of-bundle data rates of 50 c per MB are also significantly lower than Vodacom’s prices.<\/p>\n
Vodacom submitted that the inconsistency is a result of recent changes in the fee structure of its competitors and conceded that the claim is not currently true. Accordingly, it committed to withdraw the statement with immediate effect and only use it when adequate substantiation is available.<\/p>\n
The ASA accepted Vodacom’s undertaking on condition that the advertisement is withdrawn with immediate effect and not used again in its current format.<\/p>\n