HughesNet Lawyers Claim Advertised Broadband Speeds Were 'Puffery,' Court Allows Lawsuit To Proceed

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A group of consumers in California can proceed with their false advertising lawsuit against broadband satellite provider HughesNet for allegedly delivering Web connections at lower-than-advertised speeds, a court has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti in the northern district of California rejected HughesNet's argument that its advertised speeds were "puffery," or obvious exaggerations.

"Hughes' representations disclose hard, measurable quantities that cannot be characterized as mere 'puffery,'" Conti wrote in a ruling quietly issued late last month. "A reasonable jury could find that representations about its internet services are deceptive even in light of Hughes' disclosures that it could not guarantee any particular or average speed."

The consumers, Tina Walter of Yorkville, Christopher Bayless of Three Rivers, and Eric Schumacher of Chico, alleged in their potential class-action lawsuit that HughesNet "consistently advertised Internet speeds that are not provided, leaving customers no alternative but to either continue paying for services they do not receive, upgrade their service plans and hardware components at a substantial cost in an attempt to improve service, or cancel their service plans and incur a unilaterally imposed $400 termination fee."

For instance, Bayless says his actual speeds averaged less than half of what HughesNet advertised. He alleges that he originally signed up for a plan providing 1.2 Mbps and later upgraded to a plan that offered up to 1.6 Mbps downstream speeds for $79.99 a month. He also alleges that HughesNet slowed down his connection to around 450 Kbps downstream for allegedly exceeding the bandwidth cap. He then upgraded to a $179-a-month plan that promised minimum speeds of 1.2 Mbps, but says that his actual average speed came to less than half of that.

HughesNet allegedly advertised broadband plans ranging from $59.99 a month for download speeds of 1 Mbps to $349.99 a month for download speeds of 5 Mpbs.

Chris Riley, policy counsel at broadband advocacy group Free Press, says his organization is urging the Federal Communications Commission to tackle how broadband providers advertise speeds on an industry-wide basis. "Accurate disclosure of actual speeds, and a shift away from the advertising emphasis on unattainable, ideal-circumstances theoretical speeds, would very much be in the best interests of consumers," he says. At the same time, he says, even accurate ads won't necessarily be a huge benefit to rural consumers who often only have one choice of broadband provider.

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