Canadian Advertising Watchdog Says Telecom Giant Misrepresented Pricing Claims

TORONTO, September 3- Canadian telecommunications giant Telus misrepresented pricing claims during an advertising campaign earlier this year, an industry self-regulatory body ruled on Thursday. The self-governing body did approve the claim that “Canadians spend less on wireless than Americans,” which was initially based on a PricewaterhouseCoopers…

TORONTO, September 3 (Sputnik) – Canadian telecommunications giant Telus misrepresented pricing claims during an advertising campaign earlier this year, an industry self-regulatory body ruled on Thursday.

Telus, in a full-page ad in newspapers earlier this year, claimed that Canadians spend less on wireless services than Americans and that “it’s a myth that Canadians pay some of the highest wireless prices in the world.” The latter claim still appears on the company website to this day.

“There was no support in the cited study for the claim that it is a myth Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for wireless,” Advertising Standards Canada said in a statement.

The body justified its ruling saying that Telus’ ad “incorrectly conflated affordability and pricing” and that its claims were based on a study that included only four countries.

The self-governing body did approve the claim that “Canadians spend less on wireless than Americans,” which was initially based on a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Canada study.

Canadians have frequently cited excessive wireless prices as an area of concern. Despite the PWC study finding that Canadians spend less than Americans and Australians on wireless services, a Visual Capitalist report ranked Canada 146th in the world for price of 1 GB of data.