Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/02/15/accc_unlimited_optus_adverts/

'Unlimited' misleading on throttled broadband: Federal Court

ACCC wins Optus advertising case

By Richard Chirgwin

Posted in Legal, 15th February 2011 20:49 GMT

Australia's Federal Court has handed the ACCC a win over the misleading use of the word “unlimited” in broadband advertisements.

In a decision handed down in Melbourne this week, Justice Anthony North of the Federal Court agreed with the ACCC that the word “unlimited” in Optus advertisements was misleading.

Under the plans the telco was advertising, customer connections were throttled to 256 Kbps speeds once the customer had reached the plan’s 15GB or 30GB download cap.

The judge found that the advertisements only disclosed this condition in “very fine print”, and as a result had not “sufficiently and prominently” advised customers of the impact of the throttling.

This, Justice North said, contravened Section 52 of Australia’s Trade Practices Act. ®