Australian Federal Court has ruled Vocus-owned telcos misled consumers about evening internet speeds by listing an average speed that was calculated using only the fastest speeds observed on their respective networks.
Dodo and iPrimus misled consumers by publishing inaccurate information about the typical evening speeds provided in their residential NBN broadband services, the Australian Federal Court has ruled. From March 2018 to April 2019, the Vocus-owned telcos claimed to provide certain internet download speeds on their respective websites despite not having reasonable grounds to make those representations. The misleading speeds listed on the websites were for the “busy evening period”, from 7pm to 11pm, with Dodo promising 11 Mbps for 12/1Mbps NBN plan,24 Mbps for 25/5Mbps plan, and at one point 47 Mbps for its 50/20Mbps plan. Meanwhile, iPrimus claimed it could provide 11 Mbps for its services on the 12/1Mbps speed tier and at one point 47 Mbps for its 50/20Mbps plan during the busy evening period. According to Justice Bernard Murphy, the telcos did not have a testing methodology in place that could appropriately measure the speeds typically or usually received by customers.
