The Supreme Court upheld the ruling against lifecell for misleading advertising
The Supreme Court, sitting as the Commercial Court of Cassation, upheld the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) regarding lifecell.
This is stated in the court’s decision dated March 26, 2026.
The judges ruled that the use of advertising claims such as “leader,” “No. 1,” or “#1” without proper justification is impermissible.
Three of lifecell’s advertising messages were found to be misleading:
- “Lifecell – The Leader of the New Generation of the Internet! Better 4.5G coverage.”
- “No. 1 in Internet roaming.”
- “#1 for smartphones.”
- The court emphasized: what matters is not the company’s intent, but how the message is perceived by the average consumer. If the primary impression is one of absolute leadership, while the explanation refers only to a narrow technical metric, this is considered misleading.
Important criteria for advertising
- Comparisons must be made using the same parameters.
- Claims that a product is superior to others with different functionalities are incorrect.
- Proving actual damages is not mandatory—it is sufficient to demonstrate the potential impact on the consumer’s choice.
The decision dated March 26, 2026, establishes that misleading advertising, even without direct harm, may be grounds for sanctions by the AMCU, and clarifications in fine print do not eliminate the misleading effect.
Earlier, mobile operator lifecell announced an update to the prices of its popular rate plans, which will take effect on April 2, 2026.
As of February 18, 2026, mobile operator lifecell changed the prices of its popular “Maxi” and “Mega” rate plans.
Prior to this, the mobile operator lifecell stated that the potential merger of Kyivstar and Vodafone’s tower infrastructure poses a threat to national security, leads to market monopolization, and reduces competition.
