Mobile phone firms face court over ‘free’ phone costs

Mobile phone firms Vodafone and T-Mobile are being taken to court in the Netherlands for misleading customers about the cost of mobile phone contracts.

Foundation Consumentenclaim wants the courts to force the phone firms to pay back hundreds of euros to individual customers who have paid too much for their all-in contracts.

The claim focuses on contracts which included a phone. The Supreme Court recently ruled that these deals are effectively a credit agreement and that the phone is bought off during the lifetime of the contract.

If the customer extends the contract without a new phone, the cost of their subscription should fall, Stef Smit of Consumentenclaim told broadcaster NOS.

Hundreds of guilders

People who extend their contracts without a new phone are spending between €20 and €30 too much a month on their contract and are entitled to a refund. He estimates up to a million Vodafone and T-Mobile clients may have been duped out of several hundred euros each.

So far the phone firms have been extremely reluctant to comment or pay back any cash, NOS said.

KPN is in talks with both Consumentenclaim and the consumers association Consumentenbond about a compensation scheme. ‘The door is open to Vodafone and T-Mobile but they’ve not been willing so far,’ Consumentenbond spokeswoman Sandra de Jong said.