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“The service includes 1 Tera of cloud storage space. Vodafone Drive by BabylonCloud will be provided free of charge, provided that the Customer, at the time of withdrawal, has paid an amount equal to the fees due for the Offer for 24 (twenty-four) months from the date of acceptance of the Offer itself. Failing this, the Customer acknowledges and accepts the loss of the economic benefit on the price of Vodafone Drive by BabylonCloud. Therefore the Customer will be obliged to pay a lump sum amount by way of adjustment on the amount foreseen for the use of Vodafone Drive by BabylonCloud. Without prejudice to any additional amounts owed by the Customer, such as, without claiming to be exhaustive, the costs of deactivation, accruals of activation costs or related to equipment. The amount due as an adjustment for Vodafone Drive by BabylonCloud is 200 euros in case of non-payment of an amount equal to at least half of the amount corresponding to the amount due for 24 months and 100 euros in case of payment of an equal amount at least half of the amount corresponding to the consideration due for 24 months, but less than the same “.
It is therefore one of those items – such as modem, activation – that the operator offers for free as long as the user stays at least 24 months; and which suddenly pays if there is a free cancellation.
It is as if the operator gives a free service that he estimates to cost 200 euros for two years, in exchange for the commitment not to cancel in advance.
But if in the case of activation and modem there is something that the user undoubtedly gets, this service is activated without necessarily his awareness.
Of course, there would be an obligation for the user (and convenience) to always read all the items of a telephone contract before signing it; but there is also a regulatory obligation for operators to clearly communicate all deactivation costs prior to subscription.
The case is particular and has no equal among those analyzed by Agcom or Corecom. However, for the activation, the modem or other similar items (such as the recovery of discounts) the right of the user to pay only the remaining installments, those that were missing at the natural expiry of the contract, is now established. If the user cancels at one month from the age of 24 he cannot be forced to pay 100 euros, but a proportionally reduced amount.
It should also be noted that the 200 euro cost for two years, for 1 Terabyte, is out of the market: Microsoft’s OneDrive with 69 euro gives in addition to 1 Terabyte also access to the entire Office package.
In short, for many reasons it would seem that the BabylonCloud service serves more than anything else as a tool to block the user for two years and “punish” him in the event of early termination.
Only Agcom can confirm this assessment. We advise the user to contest through Conciliaweb and to report to Agcom (https://www.agcom.it/denunce-all-autorita) to allow a valid intervention also on other similar cases.
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