Russian Antitrust Probes MTS on Misleading Ad in Tomsk

MOSCOW, Dec 11 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service?s (FAS) branch in the Tomsk Region has opened a probe allegedly misleading advertisement by Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) in the Siberian city of Tomsk, the antitrust regulator said Monday.

MTS has been advertising its Stimul tariff plan with ads saying that "all calls to mobile users cost 1.90 rubles without a connection fee," the regulator said.

The advertising may mislead consumers, as they might think that it advertises the price for a call of any length, while in fact it is the price for only one minute of a call, the regulator said.

The FAS plans to consider the case on December 19.

(26.2356 rubles - U.S. $1)

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Posted to the site on 11th December 2006