Commerce Commission lays charges against 2degrees over alleged misleading ‘free Aussie roaming’ claims

Telco 2degrees is in hot water with the Commerce Commission over its advertising for "free Aussie roaming" for business mobile plans. Photo / 123rf

The Commerce Commission has hit telco 2degrees with eight charges under the Fair Trading Act for alleged misleading claims about its “free Aussie roaming” for business mobile plans.

The watchdog alleges that 2degrees made claims in its advertising between 2020 and 2023 that created the impression that customers would have the ability to roam year-round in Australia at no extra cost, when that was not the case.

Instead, 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.

A spokesman for 2degrees said the cap had since been removed completely in response to the commission’s investigation.

“A small number of business connections had roaming charges applied when in Australia for more than 90 days in a year and following our engagement with the commission, we have now refunded more than 90 per cent of those businesses,” the spokesman said.

“We will be following up on the remaining customers which exceeded the cap during that period to ensure they are not out of pocket.

“We understand the need for advertising to be clear and not misleading and we are very committed to continuing to offer our Free Aussie Business Roaming benefit, which is the only offer of its type for NZ businesses and is incredibly valued by those who use it.”

Vanessa Horne, general manager of fair trading for the Commerce Commission, said businesses needed to make sure that key information about claims they’re making is easy to find and not buried in the fine print.

“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,” Horne said.

Horne said describing something as “free” is 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.

Last year, rival telco One NZ said it was phasing out its “100 per cent mobile coverage” campaign for a new “Coverage like never before, launching 2024″ tagline, after receiving a “stop now” letter from the commission.

The regulator said the term “100 per cent mobile coverage” was potentially false or misleading.

“These concerns arise from the absolute and unqualified nature of the claim and that the majority of the advertising does not make it clear that limitations apply to the mobile coverage,” Commerce Commission chairman John Small said at the time.