Tuesday set for Telstra and Optus showdown Tim Addington
Telstra and Optus will face each other in court on Tuesday after Australia’s largest telco claimed its rival’s latest mobile advertising campaign was “misleading”. As B&T revealed last Thursday, Telstra announced plans to sue Optus and went to the Federal Court in Victoria today to secure a hearing date.
The case will be heard by Justice Gray in Melbourne on Tuesday (May 15) at 10.15am. The court ordered that Optus must file its evidence by 3pm on Monday and gave Telstra until 9am the following morning to respond.
The judge may decide the case on the day or defer verdict until a later date.
The Optus “Black & White” campaign created by M&C Saatchi, was launched across TV, print, online and outdoor earlier this week, and shows a baboon spruiking Optus’s $49 capped mobile phone plan compared to Telstra’s $40 phone plan. The baboon then tells people to eat their next Telstra bill.
Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said Optus, which is owned by Singapore’s Singtel, was resorting to “trickery” in order to confuse customers.
"Instead of comparing apples with apples, SingtelOptus is instead trying to compare apples with avocadoes,” he said.
"We do not object to fair comparisons, but SingtelOptus has chosen to compare their $49 capped plan with a totally different Telstra plan, rather than Telstra's $49 capped plan – in an attempt to confuse consumers about Telstra's offers.
"The bottom-line is that SingtelOptus cannot compete with Telstra's Next G network on coverage, speed or overall value, so they have resorted to trickery in their advertising in an attempt to confuse consumers."
Taylor went on: “Optus has just reported what looks like its worst quarterly performance on post-paid mobiles in many years, signing up a mere 1,000 net new customers in the March quarter. Is this a sign that SingtelOptus has lost confidence and its way and using desperate measures to confuse the consumer?"
Telstra holds 44% of the mobile market compared to Optus’s 25%.
Michael Smith, group marketing director for Optus Consumer said the company made no apologies for the ads claiming they were “legitimate”.
He said: “Optus has been successfully promoting its Cap plans for two years and over the same period Telstra has primarily encouraged its customers onto non cap plans – so it was only natural for us to use these comparisons in our latest Black & White campaign as the facts speak for themselves.
"Optus’ advertising is legitimate and in the public interest because it promotes fair competition. Our focus is on informing consumers about the mobile choices and options available to them. We make no apologies for giving customers the facts in Black and White."
But Matin Algie, special counsel at law firm Wisewould told B&T that Telstra may have a case.
"The campaign is potentially deceptive," he said. "It creates a dominant impression that Optus has made a comparison of products that are alike and it has also taken it one step further and created a very strong impression that you get additional benefits if you go with the Optus over the Telstra product.
"But if you compare the two deals, that doesn't appear to be so. There isn't much difference between the two, there aren't substantial benefits of one over the other."
