Optus customers are able to opt out of misleading plans

It has been reported that customers that signed up to two Optus broadband plans that were deemed as being misleading have been given the opportunity to opt out of their contracts.

Following a trial that was brought against Australian communications and broadband giant Optus by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission some customers that signed up for either of two broadband plans offered by the company are going to be given the chance to opt out of their contracts without any termination fees or penalties.

The ACCC claimed that the original advertisements selling the two plans, which were the ‘Think Bigger’ plan and the ‘Supersonic’ plan were misleading, and the judge agreed, siding with the ACC. The case was first brought to trial in September, and around eleven of the Optus advertisements covering a range of media were called into question as part of the proceedings.

It has now been decided that as a result of the misleading nature of the advertisements any customers that signed up to either of the two plans between 25th April this year and 15th October this year will be given the opportunity to opt out of their contracts and terminate them without any termination fees, charges, or penalties.

The part of the ads that the ACCC took issue with was relating to the speed, with the ads claiming that the cable plans were four times faster than standard broadband. The ACCC said that the network was capable of download speeds of 100Mbps but once consumers had reached their quote this was capped at 64Kbps. The ACCC now wants Optus to run a series of corrective advertisements using the same media platforms that they used for the original ads.

Source – Cio