“Avast” is not “Avira,” but both are free.
The Avira tested is effectively identical to the free Avira, but you don’t get their “Webguard” (it restricts you from bad sites) or their “EmailScanner” (it performs the check on email as they come in rather than when the payload executes).
I think you are getting the names confused.
The report in the link you posted states that AVIRA Antivir Premium 9.0.0.457 is the product that was tested. Nowhere in the report is it stated that the product tested was a free version nor is there any statement in the report claiming equivalency. If that’s your premise (even if it is true), that’s not how your original post came across to me. The one free product that was tested in the report is (per the table in the report and the listing of products tested in the report): “Alwil Software avast! free antivirus V 5.0.396”.
If you have some evidence to substantiate your claim that the AVIRA Antivir free product is indeed as effective as the AVIRA Antivir premium product, then I would certainly enjoy seeing that and am glad a link to download it was posted. I would also pay for a product that works well regardless (even if it was to circumvent a single easily dealt with ad that shows up once daily).