Melita will be appealing the €10,000 fine imposed by the communications authority for ignoring customer requests to end their service.
The Malta Communications Authority yesterday imposed an administrative fine on Melita after five reports that it had breached its obligations at law when it failed to take action on termination requests by subscribers.
The decision follows a sanction imposed on the company in July after a complaint on the same issue.
“Regrettably, despite such action, the MCA continued to receive similar complaints from other Melita subscribers,” the regulator said.
Although subscribers informed Melita 30 days in advance about their intention, they either did not have the service terminated or continued to receive invoices charging them for services.
“It was only after the MCA brought these complaints to Melita’s attention that it took the necessary action to address the requests by adjusting the subscribers’ bills.
“Consequently, in line with its powers at law, the MCA has imposed an administrative fine and has also warned Melita it would be closely monitoring the situation to ensure that the applicable procedures are adhered to,” it added.
Saying it would be filing an appeal, the company said that, before the authority’s announcement, it had addressed administrative mistakes pertaining to specific customers who had complained to both entities. A fine, it added, was “completely unnecessary and such punitive measures should not be considered as a revenue-generating channel”.
It said the communications watchdog was reaching its conclusions on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of regulations and ignoring the provisions of the contractual terms and conditions, which had been in force and unchanged since 2012 and which were in line with provisions issued by the regulator itself in July.
The complaints mentioned in the MCA’s “unfair decision” emerged at a time when Melita was implementing a substantial investment to launch a new IT system. “As Melita has already explained several times through public statements, letters to the editor and through a letter from the company’s CEO to all Melita customers in November, the implementation of the new IT system has not gone according to plan and the company is working 24/7 with its software contractors to address the shortcomings in the shortest possible time.”
Meanwhile, the company said it was providing affected customers with a number of free services until September.
The communications authority can be contacted on 2133 6840 or via customercare@mca.org.mt. More information is available on www.mca.org.mt.