In the light of the Authority’s fine, reimbursement is being requested for consumers damaged by the increase in the tariff plan without having given their consent. Word of the Code Association.
“An important intervention which must be followed by action to fully protect consumers”. This is the judgment of the Codes association regarding the fine of 2.1 million euros that the Antitrust Authority imposed on Tim.
The fine is the conclusion of a preliminary investigation started in August 2022, during which it emerged that the company, with a maneuver started in July 2022, communicated via web and SMS, an increase of up to 2 euros in the monthly cost of the prepaid mobile offer with the simultaneous offer of additional Giga, without the users having expressed any consent in this regard.
“The intervention of the Authority is important – he claims Ivano Giacomelli, National Secretary of Codes – and sheds light on a sector, that of telephony, which unfortunately is characterized by frequent situations that harm consumers. In this case, justifying the maneuver with economic needs deriving from the changed market needs, Tim modified the tariff plan without the users’ approval. A clearly serious fact. As highlighted by the Antitrust, instead of activating the additional paid service by default, thus forcing the consumer to express his refusal, the company should have made the activation of the additional service subject to the acquisition of the express consent of the user, in the absence of the which the latter would have remained on the previous tariff plan. This was not the case and the sanction was brought about. In our opinion, however, this fine does not close the matter. A next step is needed, i.e. reimbursement by Tim of consumers damaged by this operation”.