Advertising Dispute over Service Reliability

Brattle was retained by counsel for an internet service provider involved in litigation over whether a competitor’s television commercials comparing the quality and reliability of our client’s service were deceptive. Our experts created a consumer survey designed to determine the messages consumers inferred from the commercial and whether those messages led them to believe that our client’s service was less reliable than that of the ad sponsor. The results indicated that a significant proportion of respondents did perceive our client’s service as inferior, despite independent technical evaluations showing no such disparity in reliability or quality between the two providers. The matter was resolved when the competitor agreed to discontinue the advertisement as part of a settlement.