Italian operators ordered to refund users for 28-day bills by end of year

News General Italy 4 JUL 2018
Italian operators ordered to refund users for 28-day bills by end of year

Italian communications regulator Agcom has ordered Telecom Italia (TIM), Wind Tre, Vodafone and Fastweb to compensate users for charging them on a 28-day rather than a monthly basis by the end of the year. All operators have now returned to monthly billing but the watchdog has confirmed they need to reimburse customers for the days lost when they decided to move from monthly to 28-day billing by 31 December.

In a statement, Agcom said the number of days to be reimbursed will vary depending on the user but must be calculated starting from 23 June 2017, the date on which the regulator officially banned 28-day billing, and end in early April, when operators returned to monthly bills. Companies are urged to offer their customers a number of free days as compensation for the practice but are free "to propose alternative compensation solutions to the individuals concerned,” said Agcom.

In February the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, the main Italian administrative court of first instance, dismissed the operators’ appeal against the requirement to drop their 28-day billing practices but will clarify how they need to compensate users users who have changed operator in the meantime when it discusses the merit of its ruling in November.

Categories:

General

Companies:

TIM,  Vodafone,  Fastweb,  Telecom Italia,  Agcom,  Wind Tre

Countries:

Italy

Tags:

Customer service, Regulations, Consumer, Legislation - Lawsuits

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