Vodafone was forced by a court to pay moral damages to a customer who had opened a subscription fraudulently with the use of his personal data by an unknown person. More than that, that person even bought an iPhone X using the victim's data, and those from Vodafone quite passively assisted in a circus whose finality is a sentence of moral damages in the amount of 2000 of LEI.
Vodafone was sued in the middle of 2018, according to termene.ro, and then the plaintiff stated that he was obliged by the company to pay an invoice for the subscription and the phone made in his name. Those from Vodafone forced him to do this by threatening him with disconnecting his subscription, so that he complied just so he wouldn't be left without the mobile phone services he needed in his everyday life.
Vodafone OBLIGED to Pay Moral Damages to a CHEATED Customer
Vodafone lost in court because it had the obligation to protect its customer's personal data, according to the GDPR regulation, which it did not do, so it is sanctioned for this. Vodafone also included in the customer's main subscription invoice the amounts related to the fraudulently concluded contract, practically forcing the customer to pay for the fraud that would have occurred due to the negligence of the operator's employees.
"In order to hold this way, the concrete damage caused to the plaintiff is taken into account, consisting in the state of stress caused to him by the issuance of an invoice that included in his charge costs that he did not contract. At the same time, it is also taken into account that the aspects reported by the plaintiff have caused him to travel from his rural town of residence to the defendant's headquarters, as a result of the defendant's refusal to comply with the electronic notifications made, an aspect also undisputed. "
Vodafone also refused to respond to the client's requests through electronic communications, forcing him to go to his headquarters, which is a common attitude in cases of this kind. For all this attitude, those from Vodafone are now obliged by the court to pay moral damages in the amount of 2000 LEI to the client, although he asked for 10.000 euros, which the court considered unjustified, unfortunately.
Vodafone, like other telecommunications operators, is vulnerable to criminals who steal customer data, sometimes with the help of employees, and defraud the company through actions that sometimes go unpunished.
