Italy’s anti-trust and competition regulator AGCM has fined the operators Telecom Italia, 3 Italia, Wind and Vodafone Italia a total of over EUR 5 million for premium mobile services charged without user permission. The watchdog opened the investigation back in July, accusing the operators of misleading customers by including paid services that weren't requested or were requested unknowingly on their monthly phone bills. In a strongly worded statement, the regulator said the operators were guilty of unfair commercial practices, above all the omission of information regarding the fact that the signing a mobile phone contract gives users automatic access to paid services when using mobile internet.
Italian consumer associations have long complained that users clicking on seemingly innocuous banners while browsing are unknowingly subscribing to premium services, which are then automatically charged by the operators on monthly phone bills. In some cases, the banners are even invisible and users don’t even realise they have clicked them. The watchdog said the business was worth up to EUR 1 billion a year and that most of the services were unknowingly activated by users.
AGCM fined Telecom Italia and 3 Italia EUR 1.75 million, while Vodafone and Wind were each fined EUR 800,000. The companies are also required to communicate to the regulator how they intend to resolve the problem within 60 days.
