T-Mobile Gets Mostly Bad News in Advertising Watchdog Decision

T-Mobile will appeal several decisions made by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs to challenges brought by AT&T. The decisions involved “Phone Freedom” ads that appeared in television commercials, radio advertisements, and on T-Mobile’s website. The good news for T-Mobile is that NAD found at least one claim made in the “Phone Freedom” campaign to be supported. The bad news for T-Mobile is that some claims were not found to be supported. The campaign is focused on T-Mobile’s offer to pay off a customer’s phone contract and give a free 5G phone to customers who switch to T-Mobile’s Go5G Plan. NAD found the T-Mobile claim — “AT&T and Verizon require three-year device financing to get their best offers & you lose your promo credits if you upgrade after two years” to be supported. NAD found that several other claims were not supported. These include: “AT&T and Verizon rope you in with phone offers then bind you to a three-year device contract” and “You’re upgrade ready a year earlier.” The advertising watchdog said the claims overstate the limitations on AT&T customers’ ability to upgrade. NAD also recommended T-Mobile discontinue or modify the claim “Introducing Go5G Plus, the first plan that always gives new and existing customers the same great device deals.”