Broadband. Photo: Wikimedia

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has instituted proceedings against internet provider Australian Private Networks (trading as Activ8me) in the federal court for allegedly making false or misleading representations when advertising its internet services. The ACCC alleges that, between June and October this year, Activ8me breached the Australian Consumer Law when it made the false or misleading claims in three direct mail advertisements and five online banner advertisements marketing its Opticomm Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) packages.

“Activ8me sent thousands of advertisements with allegedly false or misleading claims about the speed, data limits and costs of its internet services,” said ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard. The ACCC alleges that Activ8me made false and misleading representations when it told consumers they could access speeds of up to 100 Mbps for $59.95 a month with no setup fee. In fact, the $59.95 plan only offered speeds of 12/1Mbps and a set-up fee of $99.95 applied if the consumer did not sign up to a 12-month plan.

Activ8me also told consumers that they would receive unlimited data when in fact Activ8me could suspend access or charge more for data use it deemed unreasonable. “This is this second time his year that the ACCC has taken enforcement action against Activ8me for engaging in conduct that we allege is misleading, after we issued an Infringement Notice for false or misleading claims in March,” Rickard said.