Review board tells Verizon to back off No. 1 internet speed claim

Following a complaint from Comcast, the National Advertising Review Board has recommended Verizon back off its claim of being the leader in internet speeds provided through its FiOS home internet and TV service.
NARB is the appellate unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation and administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Comcast brought its challenge to the BBB’s National Advertising Division.
The advertising claims in question are: “In customer satisfaction studies FiOS is rated #1 in internet speed…eight years running,” and, “TV service rated number one in HD picture quality…based on customer satisfaction studies.”
The customer satisfaction study in question was conducted by PC Magazine through its Readers’ Choice Survey.
According to an announcement form NARB, “NAD found that the challenged claims reasonably communicated a superiority message with respect to FiOS internet speed and HD picture quality rather than the message that Verizon customers are more satisfied with their internet speed and HD picture quality than customers of competing providers. NAD recommended that the challenged claims be discontinued. Verizon appealed that recommendation.”
Further, the claims are based on a “ranking that was not based on a comparison of objective internet speed performance and/or a head-to-head comparison of different internet service providers. The panel recommended that the challenged advertisement be modified to more clearly communicate that the higher rating with respect to Internet speed is a customer satisfaction rating based on consumers’ rating of their own Internet service providers.”
On the TV side, NARB asked Verizon “to more clearly communicate that the higher rating with respect to HD picture quality was a customer satisfaction rating based on consumers’ rating of their own internet service providers.”
Earlier this month Sprint was reprimanded by the NAD for false claims in its “cut your bill in half” advertisements and for hiding mandatory activation fees.
In ruling on a claim brought by T-Mobile US, NAD recommended Sprint discontinue its 50% saving promotion, noting the advertisements don’t clearly convey limitations to the claim in regards to savings vs. T-Mobile US rate plans. Sprint had argued references to rate plans and images of rate plans in the advertisements made clear comparison claims.
Similarly, back in 2014 the NAD told AT&T to stop advertising its U-Verse offering as the “fastest Internet for the price.”