Virgin Media has been taken to task by Advertising Standards Authority for misleading the public.

The service provider has deliberately used small prints to indicate the details of extra charges, which a person with normal sight will not be able to read.

The service provider claimed in the advertisement that it provides speed of 30 Mb which is more than four times as average broadband speed in the UK. The charges were only GBP5 per month for the first here months and GBP18.50 subsequently. There was also a line rental cost of GBP13.90 a month for the 18 month contract. If anybody wants to cancel the contract, he will have to pay disconnection fees. The deal is only for the new customers and only where Virgin Media cables are running.

But the costs were written at the end and that to in very small letters which nobody would notice.

After studying the advertisement, ASA held that the customer was right because the service provider gave all the important information in small print at the bottom, where the customer may not give any attention.

Such information should have been presented clearly somewhere at the top or middle so that the customer will not miss reading it. The service provider is really at fault.

In short, the service provider breached the rules and deserved to be penalized.

However Virgin Media argued that it has no control over the printing process as it is done by the press. It also said that the letters were larger than normal.