Regulator claims Vodafone breached 'roaming' rules

THE COMMUNICATIONS regulator has sued Vodafone Ireland over alleged breach of EU regulations aimed at protecting phone customers from “bill shock” over charges for accessing internet and web-based services when “roaming” within the EU.

ComReg claims imposing a €500,000 penalty on Vodafone is appropriate for the alleged breach which allegedly affected some 5,000 people, mainly business users.

Paul Sreenan SC, for ComReg, told Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday that EU regulations required Vodafone to implement certain options for roaming users and ComReg had served a notification of non-compliance on Vodafone in that regard.

Vodafone has contested the notice. Niamh Hyland SC, for Vodafone, said the case related to about 0.4 per cent of Vodafone’s customers and her client had made “strenuous efforts” to try to establish what exactly it was the regulator wished it to do.

Mr Justice Kelly admitted the case to the court and adjourned it for hearing in March next.

The case arises from a finding of ComReg that Vodafone failed to comply with its legal obligations under the roaming regulations. ComReg is seeking orders requiring Vodafone to comply with the regulations and to pay Comreg €500,000 arising from the alleged breach.

It is claimed Vodafone illegally deprived its customers of the option to have a default spending cap applied to their data roaming plans by March 1st, 2010, and illegally placed its customers on the Vodafone spending cap of €300 (€363 with VAT) on and after July 2010 when it should automatically have put them on the default spending cap, it is claimed.

It is also claimed Vodafone continues to illegally place a restriction on customers who could choose to have the default spending cap.

Mobile phone operators are able to track how much a data roaming customer is spending and are required to give customers a means of limiting their expenditure.

They must provide a “spend cap” and can offer such caps at different levels, as long as one of them is €50, excluding VAT. The operator is required to send the customer a text message alerting them when they have spent 80 per cent, and then 100 per cent, of their spend cap.