The Jury of the Institute for Advertising Self-Regulation recognizes the validity of the appeal of Vodafone and TIM and orders the removal of the advertising
Of course, for those who had based their entire marketing campaign on the concept of “transparency” and “revolution”, it must have been a hard blow to take. The fact is that Iliad, the French mobile operator that has helped to disrupt the telephony market in our country, will be forced to withdraw or change the commercials and posters that in the meantime had affixed in major Italian cities.
A decree was the Jury of the Institute of Advertising, which accepted an appeal filed by Vodafone and TIM. Iliad, of course, did not stand by and immediately sent its response. In fact, the French operator confirms the goodness and truthfulness of its advertising campaign and the ruling of the Jury states that “the substantial messages that characterize it have been verified and accepted as transparent and correct. It will obviously be our concern to make some of the aspects related to the communication methods of the offer, further clear”.
The French telephone operator, then, launches a blow to direct competitors, stating that “despite the incredible actions that competitors continue to put in place since we entered the market, it seems appropriate to take these opportunities as a chance to clarify again to our users that we act in transparency and in a perspective of total satisfaction of the same”.
Iliad, which are the actions contested by the Jury
Specifically, the Jury of IAP has recognized valid the appeal presented by Vodafone and TIM for what concerns the 4G+ coverage promised by Iliad and for the omission of the activation costs of the offer. In addition to this, there is the lack of clarity regarding the European roaming, being unclear the limitation of the data threshold to 2 gigabytes when going outside the Italian borders. For these reasons, the Jury orders the suspension of the advertising campaign in place – or its replacement – no later than July 20.
To this, then, is added the complaint made by Codacons, the historic association in defense of consumers. According to Codacons, in fact, the promise that the Iliad tariff is “forever” is not real, since a clause is included in the contract that would allow the operator to change the tariff conditions when it considers it most appropriate. For this reason Codacons asks Iliad to eliminate the clause, in order to make the promise real.