T-Mobile Poland has been fined PLN 15 million (EUR 3.4 million) by the Polish consumer and competition regulator for automatically extending promotional services without the customer's billing consent. The fine was reduced by 30 percent from the original amount after T-Mobile later stopped the practices, but the company said it still plans an appeal.
Uokik launched an investigation into T-Mobile in August amid concerns of consumer rights violations. T-Mobile was found to have extended the services offered free for a promotional period, without obtaining the customers' consent to continue the paid services. The services involved were 'Music for Waiting' and 'Subscription', for respectively call waiting tunes and information and entertainment services. Customers who did not cancel the services, for instance, by sending a SMS or contacting Customer Service, were obliged to bear the additional cost, despite not being asked expressly for their consent when they signed up.
Uokik said the T-Mobile case was part of a broader investigation into consumer consent for paid services in the telecom market. It's also looking at practices at the operators Orange Poland, P4 (Play) and Polkomtel (Plus).
T-Mobile noted in a statement that this is the first major ruling on interpretation of the consent procedure laid down in the Consumer Rights Law and it only had early decisions by the regulator to follow. The company termed Uokik's decision as "unreasonable" and said that the company should not have to pay the price for the entire sector.
Furthermore, after receiving guidelines for the regulator, the operator immediately changed its practices. It also noted that customers were informed both in the terms of the promotion and in a SMS about the additional charges and how to opt out.
