AT&T prevails in ad spat over Charter internet reliability claims

AT&T won its latest battle with Charter Communications over marketing claims, with the National Advertising Division (NAD) recommending the latter discontinue advertisements which call into question the reliability of AT&T’s internet service. The ruling followed AT&T’s challenge of a Charter ad for its Spectrum service. The commercial in question claimed Spectrum won against “telephone internet companies” in terms of providing reliable and glitch-free internet service. NAD noted Charter’s claim made no distinction between cable, copper and fiber services and recommended it discontinue advertising which included such a vague assertion. However, AT&T’s victory is fairly hollow. Charter had argued that the NAD should not accept AT&T’s challenge on the grounds that the claim AT&T objected to was not explicitly stated in its commercial and in any event the commercial had already been discontinued by the time AT&T’s challenge was submitted. Thus, it declined to submit evidence in support of its marketing claim. In issuing its ruling, the NAD insisted it had jurisdiction to decide the matter since Charter’s commercial continued to run through the date of the complaint.