Regulator rules against MTN for misleading advertising

The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ruled against mobile giant MTN for misleading advertising in its promotion of the ‘Shesh@600’ data deal, finding that the campaign created “an unqualified expectation” of 600GB of usable data per month – despite many customers being unable to access half of it due to poor 5G coverage.

The ruling follows a consumer complaint over the Shesh@5G package promoted on social media, which advertised 600GB of data for R399 per month.

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The fine print revealed that the offer was split into two 300GB bundles – one at “best 5G speeds” and the other capped at 20Mbps.

The complainant argued that because MTN’s 5G coverage was unreliable or non-existent in his area, he could never access the 5G portion of the deal, effectively leaving him with only 300GB of data.

The ARB found this practice to be in breach of Clause 4.2.1 of Section II of its Code, which prohibits misleading or ambiguous advertising, and Clause 16 of Section III, which deals with the non-availability of advertised products.

It said MTN’s marketing did not sufficiently warn consumers that the 300GB of 5G data would be forfeited if a stable 5G connection was unavailable.

“In modern data usage, customers reasonably expect their routers or devices to default to slower speeds rather than cancel a data allocation entirely,” it added.

“The assumption that consumers should understand the 5G data is ‘all or nothing’ is not reasonable especially when MTN’s coverage maps suggest the service is available in the area.”

MTN refers regulator to its Ts&Cs

MTN responded by pointing to its website’s terms and conditions, which it claims made the two-bundle structure clear.

But the ARB rejected this defence, noting that the social media posts and promotional material made repeated and prominent reference to “600GB at R399”, and “300GB at best 5G speeds x 12 months”, without qualifying the forfeiture risk if 5G was not accessible.

It has ordered MTN to withdraw or amend the offending adverts and to ensure that future Shesh@ promotions explicitly state that 300GB of the data may be unusable without a reliable 5G connection.

Breach of consumer trust

In a further directive to the industry, the regulator has requested that all its members – including media platforms – refrain from accepting MTN advertising for Shesh@ products unless the promotional limitations are clearly spelled out.

This is the second ruling involving MTN’s Shesh@600 product in less than a month. A previous complaint was dismissed after MTN confirmed the full 600GB was technically available.

However, in this latest case, the board ruled that the data may be inaccessible in practice – which amounts to a breach of consumer trust.

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