Why the Antitrust stanga Iliad
Agcm fine of 1.2 million to Iliad for misleading advertising on conditions for using 5G technology. All the details
Tile of the Italian Antitrust in Iliad.
The Italian Antitrust Authority sanctioned Iliad Italia Srl for 1.2 million euros
Following, as stated in a note, "the omission and / or misleading formulation of essential information on mobile phone offers – which include services with 5G technology – and for the misleading formulation of a promotional message relating to one of these offers ".
According to the Authority, "the operator has advertised some mobile phone offers by omitting or providing unclear information on the essential conditions for using 5G technology".
It is not the first time that Iliad's advertising ends up in the crosshairs of the authorities for its advertisements.
Just a month ago, the Jury of the Iap, the judging body of the Institute of advertising self-discipline, had issued a judgment against Iliad advertising on Fiber 5 Giga at 15.99 euros. And again last October the Jury had banned Iliad for the spot relating to its offer at € 7.99, limited to the part in which it declares that 96% of users are satisfied.
But this time for the Italian-French telecommunications operator a hefty fine arrives. Just last week, Iliad announced the results of 2021: a turnover up 19% to 802 million euros and a positive Ebitda of 80 million euros for the first time.
All the details.
FINES OF 1.2 MILLION EUROS
The Antitrust announces that it has imposed a 1.2 million euro fine on Iliad for misleading commercial practices.
VIOLATIONS ESTABLISHED BY THE ANTITRUST
As the note explains, "the Authority has ascertained that Iliad, violating articles 21 and 22 of the Consumer Code, has advertised some mobile phone offers, emphasizing their compatibility with the latest 5G technology (where included) but totally omitting or providing in an unclear way the information on the indispensable conditions for using this technology, such as the verification of the territorial coverage of the Iliad 5G network and the possession of a device compatible with the specific 5G technology supported by the operator's network ".
ADVERTISING WITH MISLEADING WORDING
These promotional communications were therefore not suitable for making the consumer understand that, in order to use the fifth generation network included in the offers promoted by Iliad, it was necessary to be under the geographical coverage of the 5G network of this operator and that it was essential to own a device enabled for this specific network. In fact, a smartphone, even 5G-enabled in general, cannot ensure the use of Iliad's 5G network, where it is not included among the devices enabled for navigation on this network.
Furthermore, “the Antitrust has ascertained that Iliad used the claim“ 100 gigabytes, unlimited minutes and text messages in Italy and Europe ”in a text message sent to its former customers to promote the“ Flash 100 5G ”offer. The text of this message was considered by the Authority capable of misleading the consumer about the content of the offer, since he could believe that the 100 GB included in the offer were all usable for traffic in Europe while in reality, in the event connection from other European countries, the traffic included in the offer was only 6 GB ".
REPORTING BY TIM AND CONSUMER ASSOCIATIONS
Finally, two consumer associations (Udicon and Confconsumatori) and rival Tim thought of the anomalies in Iliad's claims to the Agcm.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ecco-come-antitrust-pizzica-iliad/ on Tue, 29 Mar 2022 08:55:41 +0000.