Note: This advice is given by the CAP Executive about non-broadcast advertising. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not bind CAP, CAP advisory panels or the Advertising Standards Authority.
For advice about specific pricing disclaimers see ‘chargeable 0845 numbers’, ‘chargeable 0870 numbers’ and ‘chargeable 0843, 0844 numbers and chargeable 0871 numbers’.
Number Translation Services (NTS) numbers are used by businesses and other organisations to provide a wide range of telephone services, for example customer services and information. They often start with 084 or 087. They are not premium-rate numbers but often include an element of revenue sharing between the line provider and the marketer promoting the number.
The ASA has investigated several complaints about advertisements featuring chargeable 08 and other NTS numbers. The ASA has ruled that, because the BT rate for calls to 084x or 087x is sometimes different from the rate for calls to geographic numbers, marketers should no longer describe calls to those numbers as “local” or “national” to avoid misleading consumers. The ASA has also upheld against the word “Lo-call” (Emap Ltd, 6 April 2006).
Whether ads quoting NTS numbers must include pricing information to comply with the Distance Selling Regulations is open to debate: the question has not been tested in court.
CAP believes that, if the cost of calling an NTS number featured in a marketing communication is more than the cost of a phone call to a landline (01 or 02) using BT’s Unlimited Weekend package, the marcom should include pricing information that states the cost or the price per minute (ppm) of a call to BT customers: BT is the dominant residential call plan in the UK so information about costs from BT’s most popular plan (Unlimited Weekend) is meaningful to the most consumers.
Marcoms should state that the price of calls originating from non-BT call providers varies and, if space allows, that callers can check the price with their phone company (Windsor Telecom plc, 4 January 2006, and Langley Miniature Models, 6 April 2005).
If the cost of calling an NTS number is always less than the cost of a call for BT’s Weekend Unlimited customers to a geographic number made at the same time (for example calls to 0845 numbers), CAP recommends that no pricing information has to be given.
At the end of 2009, BT aligned the maximum cost that its residential customers are charged for calls to 0870 numbers with standard rates for UK calls. CAP now recommends that pricing information about the cost of calls does not have to be included in marketing communications containing an 0870 number because the cost of calling is never higher than the cost of a standard call on BT’s most popular residential package, Unlimited Weekend Plan.
For directory owners to include those disclaimers in all display, semi-display and classified ads featuring 0844 and 087 numbers would be impracticable. Although not considered by the ASA, CAP believes it would be acceptable for directories to include the disclaimers on every (or nearly every) page. In 2008, the ASA ruled that an ad, for an escort agency, in a national newspaper breached the Code; it concluded that, without pricing information either in the ad or elsewhere, for example, a prominent qualification in the Personal section where the ad appeared, readers were likely to be misled (Men at Work Ltd, 21 May 2008).
Phonepayplus regulates 0871 numbers and CAP recommends that marketers should contact PhonepayPlus for advice on the pricing information that should be included in marcoms. Its website address is www.phonepayplus.org.uk.
Last modified : 27 July 2010