• Antitrust fine Tim: 4.8 million for winback offers and unsolicited services

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January 22, 2020 If the user with a prepaid contract runs out of credit and does not make a top-up to renew the offer, operators no longer block outgoing traffic but make it available even in the absence of a will expressed by the user, charging however, an additional cost to customers who, even unwittingly or involuntarily, use the voice, SMS and data services.

The cost of the traffic delivered is then deducted from the subsequent top-up. Agcom has censored this practice used by three mobile operators.

This is the content of the contractual modification that the Council of the Authority for Communications Guarantees deemed to be in contrast with the sector regulations, imposing a fine of 696 thousand euros each to the companies Tim, Vodafone and Wind Tre.

As verified by the Authority during an in-depth investigation launched last July, the operators did not limit themselves to modifying the original conditions of the signed prepaid contract, but inserted a quid novi which, as such , had to be accepted by users. The conduct mentioned was also in contrast with the provisions of resolution no. 326/10 / Cons, which obliges operators to immediately terminate the data connection in the event that the available credit is completely exhausted and to reactivate it only after having received an express expression of will from customers.

User protection associations applaud: "This practice led users to unknowingly spend money on calls or internet traffic, even in the event of credit depletion, due to
of unilateral changes to contracts which, as usual, are to the detriment of consumers ", underlines Codacons, while Federconsumatori stresses that" the Authority has specified that this practice cannot be configured simply as a unilateral modification of the contract - for which it would be necessary to guarantee the customer information and withdrawal without costs - but it introduces a completely new element into the contract itself, with additional costs that must instead be expressly authorized ".