Comcast Ads Misled Customers, Regulator Says

The advertising industry’s self-regulating body has advised Comcast to discontinue or modify certain advertisements that make false claims about Xfinity

The advertising industry's self-regulating division has said that Comcast should modify or discontinue claims it makes about its Xfinity service, including those that imply inaccurate comparisons between Xfinity and its competitors.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus' National Advertising Division reviewed advertising for Xfinity across several platforms after rival Verizon challenged claims made by Comcast, the country's largest cable company.

The regulator's review was focused on claims related to four categories of performance — Comcast's HD picture quality and its telephone call clarity, both of which were advertised as the best, as well as its internet speed, advertised as the fastest, and its 24-hour customer service, a feature it said Verizon FiOs does not offer.

The NAD found that these claims were either inaccurate or insufficiently supported.

Picture quality ratings were equivalent for the two services, and while call clarity may have been better, Comcast did not compare the two directly. There is no support for the claim that its internet is the fastest and Comcast already discontinued its claims about Verizon's lack of 24-hour service. 

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