Compaq taken to task over compliance claim

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told Compaq it should not claim its computers are millennium-compliant because customers will find it confusing.

Steve Torbe, year 2000 UK manager at Compaq, admitted the judgement exclusively to PC Dealer last week.

The ASA ruling marks a victory for bug buster company Prove It 2000, which challenged Compaq to prove its compliance claims.

Richard Coppel, managing director of Prove It 2000, protested to the ASA about a Compaq advertisement that claimed compliance. He said Compaq's real-time clock (RTC) would not 'roll over'.

Compaq insisted the RTC did not affect PCs because incorrect times could be adjusted in the Bios.

But Torbe said: 'Customers might look at the advert and see something different.'

He said the ASA was satisfied the hardware was compliant but might not be when used with software and an OS.

Coppel said the decision was a victory for Prove It 2000, but would not comment further. He said it was an initial ruling and the findings were still under embargo.

An ASA representative said the recommendation was yet to be voted on by the ASA council.

The recommendation comes as executives at Compaq Australia folded on the RTC issue. Malcolm Green, major account liaison manager for year 2000 at Compaq Australia, said: 'There's no guarantee the definition we have today for compliance is not going to change over the next month or six months.'