December 14, 2011

Verizon Goes Toe-to-Toe With Cablevision in Lawsuit

Last week, Cablevision Systems filed a lawsuit to stop a Verizon advertising campaign, which it claims makes intentionally false and misleading statements related to Cablevision's high-speed Internet service. (For more, see Cablevision Sues Verizon Over High-Speed Internet Ads).

Verizon has responded in Federal Court with the following statement:

"This case is about deceptive marketing - Cablevision's. Cablevision's Internet service has been and continues to fall short of what consumers are being told. The best that Cablevision can claim is that it is not misrepresenting its broadband speeds quite as much today as in the past. Consumers deserve to get the broadband speeds they are promised, but they don't with Cablevision. To try to compete with Verizon's state-of-the-art FiOS services, Cablevision has concealed its inferior broadband performance from consumers for years, and continues to do so today.

"In August, the Federal Communications Commission issued an official report on 'Measuring Broadband America,' available at: www.fcc.gov/measuring-broadband-america.  In its study of broadband speeds, the FCC found that the Internet speeds Cablevision actually provided customers fell far below the speeds that Cablevision advertised.  But faced with these facts, Cablevision refused to correct its advertising, and continued – and continues to this day – to misinform consumers.

"Verizon's advertising campaign simply highlights the reality of Cablevision's inferior service to consumers. Verizon's advertising claims are correct and true.  Despite whatever 'fixes' Cablevision claims to have been recently made, its own evidence proves that, even today, Cablevision's actual speeds still fall short of its advertising."