The President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, issued a decision obliging the operator of Orange Polska to pay subscribers compensation and change the way it operates. “The objections raised irregularities in the activation of paid services offered by Orange Polska and subscription services provided by other entities for Orange subscribers” – we read.
– We received complaints from consumers who were surprised by the higher bill and did not know what the charges were for. The reports showed that the services were activated unconsciously – by clicking the so-called flash an SMS, a link on a website, an advertisement in a mobile game, as well as using a SIM card in the router. We checked the way of activating these services, the rules of adding fees to the bill for this content and responses to complaints – says Tomasz Chróstny.
As reported by UOKiK, the proceedings concerned:
- non-telecommunications services provided by Orange (activated, among others, via notifications, the so-called flash SMS and clicking the “OK” button by the consumer after receiving it). It concerns the following services: “Where is the child”, “Protect children in the network”, “Orange Navigation”, “CyberTarcza” and “Secure PESEL”,
- third party services billed by the operator using “Order with Orange” (so-called direct billing, where the fee is automatically added to the bill). These are, for example, GAMEMINE, KidzInMine, VIDIX.mobi.
