Telstra has paid a penalty of $102,000 following the issue of an infringement notice by the competition regulator in relation to a recent iPhone 6 advertisement.
Telstra's full-page advertisement (PDF) appeared in Fairfax Media's The Age newspaper on September 27 this year and featured a large photo of the iPhone 6, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.
The advertisement for Telstra's iPhone 6 and phone plan bundle prominently displayed the plan cost of $70 per month when, in fact, consumers were required to pay an additional $11 per month for the iPhone 6, the ACCC said.
Although the advertisement disclosed the additional payment of $11 and the total monthly cost of $81 in fine print, the regulator said this misrepresented the price of the phone and phone plan bundle to consumers.
"Consumers should be able to understand the true cost of an advertised product so they can make informed purchasing decisions," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.
"Businesses must be careful about using attention grabbing headline prices to ensure that their advertisements do not mislead consumers about the actual price they will have to pay. This is especially the case for bundled goods and services like phones and plans," Mr Sims said.
Telstra said in a statement that it was "surprised" to receive the infringement notice, as it said it ads "prominently stated the mobile plan cost, the handset cost and the total minimum cost as legally required".
It added that its advertisement was "in line with the way many others in the industry advertise mobile plans with handsets".
It also argued that the advertisement in question was displayed in a full newspaper page "so all the text was much larger".
Despite this, it said it had made some changes to its advertising to make it "even clearer" to customers what they will pay each month for a plan and handset.
