Dodo fined by ACCC for misleading ads
- 06 January, 2011 11:23
- Comments 4
Internet service provider, Dodo Australia, has been hit by $26,400 worth of fines by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for making false or misleading representation about its broadband plans.
Four infringement notices worth $6600 each were issued by the ACCC on December 21, 2010, in response to Dodo’s “Unlimited ADSL2+ broadband plan” advertisements. These were published on TV, radio, billboards and on websites from August to October 2010.
According to the ACCC, the ads told customers they could purchase the service on its own for $39.90 per month when they actually needed to purchase a home telephone plan as well. This brought the minimum monthly spend up to $69.80.
This breached section 53(e) of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
“To prominently advertise the price of only one component and bury the total bundled price in the fine print is misleading,” ACCC acting chairman, Michael Schaper, said. “When advertising services which are paid on a periodic basis, traders should appropriately disclose the total periodic cost so that consumers understand their payment obligations.”
It’s not the first time Dodo has been hit with fines from regulatory bodies. In 2008, the telco paid $147,400 to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for illegally calling 67 telephone numbers listed on the Do Not Call register.
In May 2010, Dodo was given last place and a 58 per cent customer satisfaction rating in a survey by Internet comparison website, Broadband Expert.
Unlimited broadband plan ads also landed rival telco, Optus, in hot water last year. The ACCC first took it to court in June 2010 for “unlimited” plan ads before launching another Federal Court case in September 2010 for “Supersonic Broadband” ads.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter
Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- Market Potential-Strategy Guide to the Active Archive Market
- In Search of the Long-Term Archiving Solution —Tape Continues to Be a Major Player
- Aberdeen Group: Building Business Resilience Through Active Archive
- Spectra Logic and Australian National University Success Story - March 2012
- In Search of the Long-Term Archiving Solution —Tape Delivers Significant TCO Advantage over Disk
-
Facebook could buy Nokia to build 'FacePhone', expert claims
-
It's not all Doom at new media conference
-
Tech Watch: Who watches the datacentre?
-
Facebook scammers host Trojan horse extensions on the Chrome Web Store
-
Webroot: Growth in security
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
Comments
Kevin
This sort of advertising should be treated as outright fraud and jail sentences should be part of the penalty.
it is about time board members of all organisations be held fully accountable for criminal activities of the entities they represent.
roger jones
Thank-you for your nanny state opinion Kevin. You need to get back to rolling ou t more speed cameras !
Do you realise that you need a phone line for the unlimited adsl2+ to work? ? and that Dodo charge less than Telstra for this?
At least Dodo does not charge a $180 setup fee like TPG.
I just bought this unlimited plan frm DODO andit works perfect - I certainly was not deceived by the advertising.
To the ACCC, it is a bit like buying a car and then complaining that you have to pay for a licence to drive it !!!!
or buying a mobile handset and then compaining that you need to sign up to a plan to use it.
The. ACCC has really stuffed up big time here.
peter
Roger, it looks like the phone service cost a minimum of $29.90 based on the article. Telstra's cheapest phone plan is $20.95, so they certainly don't charge less than Telstra.
I think the ACCC was right in this. It's certainly misleading to advertise something at one price to attract people, only to force them to buy another product to get that price.
Roger Jones
Hi Peter,
You are totally wrong.
That Telstra plan cannot be bundled with Broadband and has horribly high usage rate.
You need to compare agaisnst the normal Telstra line rental fee which is a lot more epensive than Dodo's.
They are not "forced" to buy another product. It's similar to buying a car - you need to add petrol and registration and insurance etc- Do Holden include these costs in the advertised price of the a new Commodore when they advertise it ???? Of course not.
I think the public is informed enough to realise that a home phone service is required for Broadband.
Post new comment