Vodafone issued with formal warning by regulator over advertising practices

Vodafone has been given a formal warning by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for failing to more prominently disclose fine print mandated by the new telecommunications code, reports an article in smartcompany.com.au.

The warning is just one of several the communications regulator has handed out to the telco industry.

In this latest incident, the seventh industry warning since the code was introduced in September 2012, Vodafone failed to display its "standard charge" for a mobile phone product offer, which placed it in breach of the code.

While Vodafone had actually included advertising for these standard charges, they weren't displayed prominently as the code mandates.

The new code rules that providers which create text advertisements with an "included value" summary, (such as "this package includes $200 worth of value"), need to also include a "standard charge" for the cost of a call, SMS or 1MB of data.

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