The government issued a warning on Thursday to telecommunications giant SoftBank Corp. for false advertising in a sale on the Apple Watch, ordering it to make sure the practice is not repeated.

According to the Consumer Affairs Agency, advertisements posted on SoftBank's website last November appeared to claim that 86 different types of Apple Inc.'s wearable device would be on sale for 11,111 yen ($99) at 485 stores nationwide.

But on Nov. 3, the first day of the sale, most of the stores carried less than half of the variations and 179 of the stores had no inventory at all. A total of 1,128 Apple Watches were stocked.

The agency said it issued the warning after receiving numerous complaints about the lack of inventory in the sale.

SoftBank put out a statement saying it had prepared inventory based on past sales and had underestimated demand for the discounted Apple Watch. It apologized to customers for the "great inconvenience" it had caused and promised to review its advertising practices.