Vodafone and 3 must reimburse their customers who have been charged unexpectedly for inadvertent connections to their voicemail service. This was established by Agcom, ordering the two operators "to cease any conduct harmful to users' rights with reference to the charge for involuntary connections to the telephone answering service".
The authority, in particular, has ordered the two companies "to communicate within 30 days the technical measures they intend to adopt to prevent users from being able to connect to the answering machine involuntarily (for example by touching the relevant symbol on the smartphone screen) and , at the same time, to reimburse the users affected by these charges".
During the investigation "opened following the report of a user who complained of continuous charges caused by the involuntary override of the answering machine key on his iPhone - explains Agcom -, the actual existence of critical issues was found in the charging system of connections to the answering machine used by H3G and Vodafone Italia”.
The authority has therefore “initiated two proceedings during which both operators have put in place some measures in order to obviate the risk of unwanted connections to the telephone answering service. However, these measures were not considered by the Authority to be sufficient to guarantee respect for customer rights".
Hence the decision to "order the two operators to adopt technical solutions aimed at preventing their users from involuntarily consulting the answering machine service with the related charges (equal to 0,20 euros for each contact in the case of H3G and 1,50 euros per day in case of use for Vodafone users), with the obligation, at the same time, to reimburse its customers for the fees already paid”, concludes the Authority.
