The Commerce Commission has filed charges against New Zealand telecommunications company 2degrees — alleging its claims of "free Aussie business roaming" on mobile plans were misleading.
The Commission filed eight charges under the Fair Trading Act alleging that Two Degrees Mobile Limited's (2degrees) advertising of "free Aussie business roaming" for customers who signed up to their business mobile plans was misleading.
2degrees prominently used claims such as "Aussie business roaming at no extra cost" and "the other guys charge for Aussie business roaming, we don't" when in fact the "free" roaming was capped at 90 days each year. If customers exceeded 90 days of roaming, they would be charged per day of additional roaming.
Fair Trading general manager Vanessa Horne said the 2degrees claims in its marketing between 2020 to 2023 created an impression that customers would have the ability to roam year round in Australia at no extra cost — when that was not the case.
"Businesses need to make sure that key information about claims they're making is easy to find, and not buried in the fine print," Horne said.
Horne said that describing something as "free" was likely to sway a consumer's purchasing choice, and businesses risk breaching the Fair Trading Act when limitations or conditions to headline claims are not clearly disclosed.
"Consumers should be able to rely on the truth and accuracy of advertising headline claims as they are often central to the overall impression created by the advertising."
The Commission said 2degrees has already taken steps to rectify the claims and compensate affected customers, including removing the 90-day limit on free roaming in Australia, refunding current and former customers who were charged for business roaming in Australia in excess of 90 days, and updating their promotional material.
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