The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled against an online campaign by Virgin Media, which accuses rivals of "conning" internet users.

BT and Sky had complained against "Stop the broadband con" and the ASA ruled reprimanded Virgin implying that the campaign cannot continue. The campaign also included a letter form Richard Branson claiming rivals were "not keeping their promises", a speed test as well as links to Ofcom's official broadband report.

Virgin also shows a video with Sky's broadband advert and pointed to the ‘conning’. The company encouraged the users to share it with their friends, making ASA take a stand against it.

"We considered the ad went beyond highlighting the disparity Virgin believed existed between advertised broadband speeds compared to those that were delivered and implied that other ISPs dealt with consumers dishonestly in relation to broadband speeds," the ruling from the ASA read.

Virgin claims that the campaign was aimed at pointing out the dissatisfaction among broadband customers about speed advertisements. The company responded to the ruling by saying that Advertising 'up to' speed ads that are delivered by the service providers are ‘con’.

A company spokesperson said that various agencies including ASA, Ofcom as well as consumer groups and intern users have supported the call for change and Sky and BT should be honest about their broadband instead of opposing the effort.