MyRepublic pays $25,200 in penalties over NBN speed claims, joining Telstra, Optus, TPG and others

MyRepublic is the latest telco among a growing list to pay a fine for making misleading claims about the performance of its NBN services.

The Singapore-headquartered telco coughed up penalties totalling $25,200 after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued two infringement notices pertaining to marketing on MyRepublic’s website between December 2017 and April 2018 that included statements such as “up to nbn™100 Speed Tier” and “nbn™50 Speed Tier”.

Disclaimers around NBN speeds on the website were deemed by the ACCC as ineffective because of their placement, prominence and supposed lack of clear information.

ACCC commissioner Sarah Court said the statements made on the website could have been interpreted as consumers being able to get speeds of 100Mbps and 50Mbps at most hours, when this was not the case.

“NBN speed tiers indicate the maximum performance of a broadband service but a number of factors, including congestion during busy periods, affects the actual speeds consumers will experience,” Court said.

“When choosing between broadband services, consumers need accurate information about the performance they should expect, particularly during busy periods. We’ve been very clear with broadband providers about this and reference to the NBN speed tiers alone is not sufficient.”

The ACCC has issued a number of penalties to telcos spanning the last 12 months, with all the major providers now having paid fines for NBN speed claims.

Dodo, iPrimus and M2 Commander pledged to compensate 5000 customers who couldn't achieve the internet speeds they paid for in March.

The three companies, owned by Vocus Group, joined Telstra, Optus, TPG, iiNet and Internode caught up by the consumer watchdog.