The orange operator left one of its clients without service for five months and eight days due to non-payment of her invoices. Now, Justice has ruled in favor and the company must pay 10,000 euros.
The Provincial Court of Barcelona has sentenced Orange to compensate a client for an amount of 10,000 euros. The sentence comes after the orange company decided to suspend the fiber service for more than five months, affecting not only the subscriber, but also her children.
We have to go back to 2020 to know more details about this case. Said consumer requested from her operator a change in your ADSL service to switch to the fiber offered by the operator. Although the change became effective immediately, the company was billing ADSL and Fiber services from February to June. A situation that was causing a clear economic problem to said client.
A claim without effect
Although the client alerted the company of the error on several occasions, it appears that the operator did not correct the billing error. A situation that, once prolonged over time, caused the subscriber to decide to stop paying the bill corresponding to the ADSL service. Which, furthermore, was the smallest.
Once Orange detected the non-payment, it proceeded to cut off the fiber service immediately. It was not until February 2021, when the operator had to give in to the intervention of the Castelldefels Municipal Consumer Information Office to provide service to the woman again. After recognizing the error, he informed that he would cancel all the invoices that were pending payment by said user.
Despite this, the client decided to sue Orange, asking for compensation of 10,000 euros for damages as a result of the suspension of the service. At first, the first claim was underestimated, since according to the Court there was no willful or negligent breach of contract on the part of the telecom company. It was not until said sentence was appealed that the Provincial Court of Barcelona upheld the appeal and sentenced Orange to pay 10,000 euros, to which the corresponding interest must be added.
Orange breached its obligations
According to the provincial court, Orange failed to fulfill its obligations between the months of February and June 2020, since double billed the telephone service. Although said billing was not corrected immediately, it did act immediately by suspending the service when it detected the client’s non-payments. A situation that lasted for five months, until the OMIC had to intervene.
In addition to failing to comply with the rights related to the claim, the Provincial Court He has also taken into account that he did it at a complicated historical moment such as consequence of COVID. A situation that caused neither the woman nor her two children to have service during this period.
Orange, as a breacher of the contract, must repair the damage caused in moral and material terms. The Provincial Court of Barcelona has made the decision to impose compensation of 10,000 euros, considering that it is “a moderate and prudent request.” Adding further that the situation should have been resolved after “the first claim, immediately and easily”.
