The Commission for Supervision of Unfair Competition (CCD) of Indecopi imposed a sanction on América Móvil Perú SAC (Claro) for disseminating advertising messages that it described as misleading.
The company must pay a fine of 34.98 Tax Tax Units (UIT), equivalent to S/ 187,143after having determined that it did not have the necessary technical support to claim to be “the fastest mobile network in Peru”.
The measure was adopted after Entel Perú SA filed a complaint against Claro, considering that the advertising disseminated on social networks and panels misled consumers.
According to the Indecopi resolution, the advertisements implied that the company had the highest speed in all mobile technologies—2G, 3G, 4G and 5G—and in all performance indicators, which was not proven.
The supervisory body recalled that companies must comply with the principle of truthfulness in advertising, contemplated in the Law on Repression of Unfair Competition. This rule establishes that any objective statement disseminated to the public must have prior and verifiable support.
During the investigation, Claro presented information that demonstrated better performance in data download speed on its 4G network during 2023. However, Indecopi specified that this result did not extend to other technical aspects, such as upload speed or latency, nor to the other mobile technologies operated by the company.
Given this, the CCD concluded that the message disseminated did not truthfully reflect the reality of the service offered. In addition to the fine, it ordered the immediate and definitive cessation of all advertising that includes expressions such as “Claro is the fastest mobile network in Peru” and “Switch to the fastest mobile network in Peru”.
Finally, the registration of the company in the Commission Offender Registrya measure that is part of the sanctions provided for by current regulations for cases of misleading advertising.
