Telefonihuset, formerly known as Mobile Group, was the company that received the most complaints from the Swedish Consumer Agency in 2019. According to the complainants, the sellers had been unclear as to where they had called and promised free products and help in reducing the complainants' subscription costs.

But instead, consumers were locked into expensive installment plans or subscriptions with no connection to their existing telephony.

"They sold air for SEK 30,000", an affected consumer described the matter to Plusredaktionen.

The company did not agree with the criticism, but said that it had neither intentionally nor systematically misled consumers.

Prohibition would protect consumers

As a result of the flood of complaints, Telefonihuset and the company's CEO were sued in the Patent and Market Court.

In November 2019, a temporary ban was issued, threatening high fines if the rogue sales practices continued.

This would prevent more consumers from being hit while waiting for them.

In June 2020, the court upheld the ban and the company was sentenced to pay a market disruption fee of SEK 5.6 million.

In the same vein, Telefonihuset was declared bankrupt.

But the story does not end there.

Continued misleading consumers

As early as the beginning of 2020, new complaints had begun to flow in to the Swedish Consumer Agency, which indicated that the same CEO continued to mislead consumers, but now under Telefonihuset's 

parent company's

 flag.

The connection to telephone sales was no longer as clear, and a number of new subscription names began to flourish in the notifications.

According to the invoices, consumers had now purchased support services for ID protection and security, but via the inadequate contact information provided, the company was often not even reachable.

And once again, customers were drowned in letters of demand and debt collection for something they never considered they had ordered.

However, the Consumer Ombudsman considered it unprofitable to try to pursue the issue of a fine, as the approach was considered to deviate too much from what was covered by the court's ban.

This is despite the fact that the same man who managed Telefonihuset was also at this time the CEO of the parent company.

Repeated criticism also in 2020

So even in 2020, the man managed to attract a considerable amount of new criticism linked to his business, including the following:

  • The parent company was criticized three times by the trade association

    Swedish Debt Collection

    for "in a flagrant manner" having violated good ethics in debt collection operations.

    The man never responded to the criticism.

  • In August, the parent company was criticized for misleading marketing by the

    Swedish Consumer Agency

    .

    The man then stated that the campaign was over.

  • In December

    , the

    man

    was sued

    for having transferred payments - which should have gone to Telefonihuset's bankruptcy estate - to the parent company, which he himself controlled.

    Already in October, however, he had had time to sell the company and resign as CEO, the same day as foreclosure was to take place on the parent company's assets.

    The man disputes the bankruptcy estate's allegations.

  • He is currently in

    custody

    , as one of several suspects, for gross feeding fraud linked to thousands of mailings of fake invoices under the fictitious name "Billpay".

    He is also suspected of a serious money laundering crime linked to the parent company's operations in 2020. He initially admitted credit fraud, but later withdrew the confession and now denies both crimes.

Do not want to respond to criticism

Plus has sought the criticized entrepreneur, who has chosen not to respond to the criticism.

The prosecutor has not yet decided whether to demand a ban on business against the man.