MTN South Africa has been found guilty of false/misleading advertising yet again.
The first time round, it was in respect of a 24-hour data bundle which expired before 24 hours elapsed and the South Africa Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) ruled in favour of the customer/complainant.
In this current instance, a Samsung Galaxy S22 promotion that promised subscribers a free 25W charger with a cell phone contract was found to have misled customers, according to the regulatory board.
Jayden Gelman, a customer who was affected by the misleading advertising brought a complaint to the ARB stating that he purchased the advertised phone hoping to get a free charger.
The victim was later informed by MTN that the offer was only available to the first 1,000 customers. But Gelman argued that no note was attached to the offer, alerting consumers to the existence of any terms and conditions.
In its defence, MTN responded that it was not a requirement to include an asterisk, citing one Vox Fibre v. Christopher McCreanor case, which states that “reasonable consumers” should be naturally aware that terms and conditions exist for every offer.
The ARB, however, decided in Gelman’s favour, citing Clause 4.2.1 of Section II of the Code of Advertising Practice, stating that MTN’s offer is a special offer relating to a free item’s availability at the start of the contract.
It is very common to find corporates/service providers deliberately hiding terms and conditions in obscure corners on their websites only to spring them up on customers who cry foul after being short-changed.
