The Consumer Information Association (VKI) has sued mobile operator Hutchison Drei Austria (“Drei”) for misleading advertising about internet speeds and has now been vindicated by the Supreme Court (OGH). “Drei” advertised fixed and mobile internet speeds at a significantly higher speed than was ultimately available to customers. The verdict is groundbreaking for the VKI.
Even indications that the speeds are maximum values would not remove the deception in this specific case, the OGH ruled, according to a VKI broadcast.
10 to 40 megabits promised, usually only 5 to 23 delivered
“Drei” advertised its tariff models for fixed and mobile internet on the website with upload and download speeds of 10 megabits per second (Mbit/s) and 40 Mbit/s. The ‘normally available download and upload speed’, which is available 95 percent of the day, was stated in the 12-page contract terms as five and 23 Mbit/s. “Hutchison emphasized the speed of data transfer as a defining characteristic, even though it was not available permanently but only selectively,” the court said.
Petra Leupold, head of the litigation department at the VKI, calls on ‘Drei’ to draw the consequences from the verdict. “If a collective refund is not made voluntarily to individual customers, we will of course, in parallel, as a follow-up, examine model processes that clarify the legal consequences in detail and secondly, we will also examine other representative actions, which ultimately also concern injunctions and removal sentences into force,” Leupold said, according to the Ö1-Morgenjournal. The limitation of speeds promised in the fine print represents an ineffective limitation of service and customers would be entitled to warranty claims.
There is also a case against another top dog pending in the Supreme Court, Leupold said. The regulator RTR can imagine that regulations in the field of price communication will change. According to RTR director Klaus Steinmaurer, the findings will be evaluated and any legal action will be taken. Then there are no longer any need for individual procedures with individual operators, says Steinmaurer.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
