Service fee

Contract termination not legal in the event of a reclaim

Telecom providers are not entitled to terminate existing contracts in the event of a reclaim of the service fee. This was reported by the Association for Consumer Information with reference to a ruling by the District Court for Commercial Matters in Vienna. The court also ruled that the collection of the service fee was unlawful in two cases.

Both rulings confirmed the legal opinion of the VKI and ordered T-Mobile (now Magenta) to repay the service fee charged. The first-instance rulings are not legally binding. Should they become legally binding, the repayment obligation would also apply to payments made a long time ago - for up to 30 years.

"We are curious to see whether T-Mobile will accept the rulings or appeal against them. In any case, the judgments, which are extremely well-founded in terms of content, have a signal effect for the entire industry," said Petra Leupold, Head of the Complaints Department at the VKI on Wednesday.

The anger over the service fee has led to most mobile phone providers no longer charging a service fee since February. Consumer advocates criticized the fact that the costs have not disappeared, however, but have been incorporated into the existing tariffs.

Charges have not increased according to comparison
The comparison platform tarife.at takes a different view, stating that its own analysis has shown that the charges have not increased. "For the majority of mobile operators, the abolition has rather led to a reduction in costs," the portal says.

"The results show that the aliquot total monthly charge has only increased for Magenta and Red Bull Mobile, while providers such as A1, Drei and Bob have seen a price reduction," tarife.at stated.