An MTN SuperFlex advertisement promising unlimited local calls and SMSs was deemed misleading by the Advertising Regulatory Board. (Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images)
- The Advertising Regulatory Board has ruled that an MTN advertisement was misleading.
- The advertisement purported to offer “unlimited” local calls and SMSes.
- However, a customer with extremely high usage was cut from the service by an automatic algorithm.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) ruled that a MTN SuperFlex advertisement which purported to offer “unlimited” local calls and SMSes was misleading after the telecom giant cut a customer with extremely high usage from the subscription.
An MTN social media advertisement claimed that customers could get unlimited local calls and SMSes, in addition to 10GB of anytime data for R299 per month when signing up for a SuperFlex plan through the provider.
However, a disgruntled customer complained to the ARB, arguing that the offer was not unlimited, as they were cut from services after receiving warnings about their usage. The complainant said that this meant the advertisement was false advertising.
In its response to the ARB complaint, MTN said that the unlimited offer was only intended for personal use, and warned the user about their extreme usage on multiple occasions before downgrading them to a prepaid plan.
MTN said that the unlimited offer is subject to its acceptable usage policy, which monitors users to identify behaviour deemed to be outside of the intended and permitted use and or of risk to consumers.
The terms and conditions of the policy allow MTN to terminate the contract of users who violate the policy.
MTN said that it uses a proprietary algorithm to monitor the way customers make use of its services, and assess whether this violates its policies. MTN didn’t disclose what this algorithm looks for, arguing that this is a business secret.
When the algorithm detects a violation of the policy, it sends an automated SMS to the user, warning them of noncompliance.
MTN noted that the complainant in this particular case received three SMSes between 10 and 20 November, during which time their usage remained noncompliant with the acceptable use policy.
However, the user’s usage dropped significantly after the third SMS, such that they were compliant again. This was until June this year, when MTN said their usage increased significantly again.
MTN then took action and migrated the customer to a prepaid plan on 1 July 2024.
Unlimited is unlimited
While the ARB noted that curtailing the deal with restrictions in the acceptable usage policy makes business sense for MTN, it said that the term “unlimited” has a very particular definition which cannot be altered by any policy.
“Unlimited”, means “not limited”, or “without any qualification or exception”. The ARB noted that it is impossible to call something unlimited and then put a limit on it.
“To say that there are ‘unlimited’ local calls and SMSes and then clarify that the local calls and SMSes are restricted is like saying that an item is free, except that you have to pay for some of it. It is two contradictory statements and is therefore inherently misleading,” the ruling read.
The ARB said MTN didn’t attempt to qualify the ad with an asterisk or any other words which might indicate that it is limited.
Furthermore, once you get to the terms and conditions, there is no clear limit placed on the deal. Instead, MTN relies on a secret algorithm to identify whether a user has violated its policy, the ARB said.
The ARB ordered MTN to amend or withdraw advertising that claims an offer is unlimited, when it in fact still has limits.
On 11 September, advertising for the MTN SuperFlex plan still made the “unlimited” claim.
A screenshot of the MTN SuperFlex advertisment, live on the MTN website on 11 September. (Screengrab).
MTN SA told News24 that it was reviewing the recommendations.
“MTN has noted the ruling by the ARB and will review the recommendations provided by the regulator,” the short response said.
The ARB has ruled against MTN in the past over an advertisement for a 5GB daytime data and 5GB nighttime data package that was advertised as 10GB data.
