ASA Rules a Hidden Checkout Trial Was Misleading
The advertising regulator ruled on 9 September that broadband provider OneStream misled customers. Its checkout had added two free trials to the basket without making clear they would start charging automatically once the trial ended. The ASA's published ruling upheld the complaint, finding the ad broke the CAP Code's rules on misleading advertising and pricing.
OneStream's checkout added two extras, a support service and antivirus software, shown in a box marked "included with your order, free for 30 days" with a small "remove" link tucked in the corner. Both renewed automatically once the trial ended: £7.95 a month for one, £34.95 a year for the other, according to the ruling. OneStream said customers could remove either one before being charged. The ASA wasn't convinced. The free-now, paid-later terms weren't made clear enough, and a removal option nobody notices doesn't fix that.
Broadband is the specific product here. But the principle behind the ruling reaches any UK business selling online. If your own site adds something for free that later starts charging on its own, a trial period, a bundled extra, a membership that rolls into a subscription, the terms need to sit where a customer will actually read them before they check out. Not buried in small print, tucked in a corner.
That lands closer to home than a broadband complaint might suggest. A salon or gym running a free trial month before membership payments begin. A cleaning firm offering a free first visit ahead of a rolling contract. A subscription box that renews on its own. All of it sits on the same ground this ruling just tested. The fix costs nothing and takes minutes: say what the price becomes, and when, right next to the free offer itself.
It follows the same logic as the ASA's rules on what a website may claim outright: customers shouldn't have to hunt for the catch. Check your own checkout or booking page the way a stranger would see it for the first time. Our guides cover the wider legal footing a small business website needs to stand on.