Speed test ad row: Reliance Jio moves Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade against Airtel and Ookla

MUMBAI: Reliance Jio has moved Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade against Bharti Airtel and global broadband tester Ookla for running advertisements proclaiming Airtel to be India’s fastest network.

Jio says it lost reputation and money on the campaign that amounts to conspiracy, defamation and breach of trust, among others. It also named Ziff Davis, a digital media company that acquired Ookla in 2014, in the complaint. In an emailed statement to ET, a spokesperson said Airtel has not received a copy of Jio’s complaint.

Airtel labelled the allegations as “frivolous and baseless” and reflecting the “growing frustration of a competitor that has been unable to make a dent despite offering free services and predatory pricing.” Jio and Ookla did not respond to ET’s queries. Ziff Davis could not be reached for comment.

Bad blood is brewing between the two telcos — owned by Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal — as Jio asked for trial under Sections 204, 406, 420, 465, 499 and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code. The charges, if proved, can lead to a hefty fine, a few years imprisonment or both.

Jio had earlier approached the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), terming the Airtel commercial “misleading” and done in “mala fide manner in collusion with” Ookla. ASCI’s Fast Track Complaints Committee on March 29 upheld Jio’s complaint and asked Airtel to modify its advertisements by April 11.

Jio’s complaint to the court said there had not been any modifications. It said “false propaganda patently conveys the mala fide intention of the accused lacks merit and is merely done to discredit and malign the reputation” of Jio.

“The accused, as part of their larger vilification media campaign against the complainant, have deliberately coined the term to associate it with its telecom services, to deceive the public into general believing the so called award from accused number 3 (Ookla) is from an entity that has the authority to pass official certification whose data is indisputable and is universal authority on the subject,” Jio said.

“Thus, the accused have wilfully, deliberately and knowingly mislead the Indian public,” it added. Jio also charged Ookla with trying to “sell” its speed test certification for $120,000 and said it was even charging a commission of 2-4x if an operator wished to promote its business using the purported results.

Data by Ookla is “dishonestly and mischievously manipulated, records are fudged and data is forged with intention to cheat” to make it saleable to service providers, the complaint said.

It added that it had declined Ookla’s offer since it did not agree with the testing methodology and accused the company of selling the flawed data to Airtel. Some of the flaws mentioned in the petition include that dual SIM phones, when tested upon by Ookla’s method, reads the speed of both SIMs but tags it only to the primary SIM holder, which mostly belong to incumbent operators currently.