In its ruling the Market Court prohibited the teleoperator Elisa from charging its customers for paper bills, under pain of receiving a 100,000-euro fine.
The Court looked favourably on the case brought against the telecommunications company by the Consumer Ombudsman, who argued that the provision of paper invoices was part of the company’s service obligation to customers, and that the company should not charge separately for the service.
Elisa decided that it would begin charging customers 1.90 euros for each paper bill issued from April this year. According to the Competition and Consumer Authority the teleoperator should also take into consideration customers who are not able to use electronic billing services.
Not all customers have access to online services
The Authority has previously drawn attention to the fact that the provision of online banking services is not a legal requirement nor should customers be considered to be defaulting on their payments because they don’t have online banking services.
Elisa has called on the Court to reject the Ombudsman’s case and has defended the legality of its actions saying that apart from paper bills the company offers customers several different free billing options such as email or text message.
The teleoperator also noted that charging for paper bills is a common practice in the sector. DNA and the Swedish-Finnish teleoperator Sonera also charge customers for paper bills.
Elisa can apply to the Supreme Court which will then decide whether or not to grant the right of appeal. The company has until May 23 to apply for the right to appeal.