Hutchison 3G Italy Ordered to Suspend Debt Collection for 3G Data Charges

Hutchison 3G Italy has been ordered to suspend debt collection procedures against customers who are contesting their mobile data charges. The Italian Competition Authority issued the order after it launched an investigation to determine whether the operator had used unfair commercial practices regarding tariff plans for internet use.

According to numerous complaints, users who had subscribed to the "Tre.Dati Abbonamento" tariff plan with an "ADSM USB Modem" received huge bills of up to almost EUR10,000, whereas such enormous costs were not to be expected based on the conditions in the offer.

The Authority is now investigating whether H3G's documentation was clear enough when explaining that there is a 5GB per month download limit followed by a chargeable rate for any subsequent downloads. The Authority is also concerned that a monitoring software package supplied with the USB modem did not accuratly record the data download traffic and its figures disagreed with the amount then later charged to the customer.

The Authority's ruling means that H3G must suspend, as an interim measure, all direct procedures against users for recovery of sums relating to data traffic over the threshold of 5 GB/month and of sums relating to data traffic using GPRS roaming. The suspension covers usage billed in the period 21 September 2007 - 31 May 2008 (for subsequent months the company took corrective steps which should ensure that the phenomenon is not repeated), so long as the billings were the subject of complaints lodged by the users with the company or with a public authority.

Posted to the site on 3rd August 2008