Vodafone Italia, Wind Tre fined Over EUR 10 Mln For Consumer Code Breaches

Italian antitrust watchdog AGCM has fined the operators Vodafone Italia and Wind Tre a total of over EUR 10 million for breaching the country’s consumer code in their ‘winback’ offers launched to persuade former customers to return. Vodafone and Wind Tre were fined EUR 6 million and EUR 4.3 million respectively for infringements including the failure to provide clear and immediate information on the ‘personalised’ winback offers for customers sent mainly via SMS. The watchdog said the offers only indicated the basic conditions of the proposed plan (cost and data) while omitting any additional information on costs and restrictions on use.

Likewise, the operators breached conditions of the consumer code regarding customer acceptance of their offers, in that they pre-activated different services and / or additional options, with additional costs, without seeking the express consent of the users.

The regulator said the operators’ conduct may be considered liable to mislead consumers with regard to the content of the offer and persuade them to make a commercial decision they wouldn’t otherwise have made. – Telecompaper