-
Vodafone building in Auckland. - Source: Breakfast -
Related
Vodafone New Zealand says it takes being fined $960,000 for misleading customers over broadband and mobile services "very seriously".
Vodafone was sentenced in the Auckland District Court today after pleading guilty to 21 breaches of the Fair Trading Act in July.
The charges were laid by the Commerce Commission, and relate to various offences made by the telecommunications giant between 2006 and 2009.
Each of the 21 charges carried a maximum penalty of $200,000.
In response to the fine, Vodafone Marketing Director, Greg Campbell said today that the company has accepted the penalty sought by the Commerce Commission following a Fair Trading Act investigation.
"In 2006 and 2008, there was a huge amount happening in the world of technology - the mobile internet was emerging, mobile networks were speeding up and customers were really getting a handle on the benefits of being mobile.
"In our genuine attempts to communicate these benefits, we accept that we got some things wrong," said Campbell.
He also said that that Vodafone takes the FTA charges and resulting fine "very seriously".
"We did not set out to mislead anyone and we apologise unreservedly.
"We accept that we didn't communicate as clearly as we should have done with our customers and pleaded guilty to the FTA charges back in July," Campbell said.
Last November, in the second of six cases the Commerce Commission is taking against Vodafone, the company was fined $81,900 for misinforming the public over its $1 a day mobile internet plan in November.
The Commerce Commission said customers thought they were paying "$1 a day" for 10 megabytes of data on its Vodafone Live service, when in fact they were charged $1 after only using 2% of the 10MB.
The company apologised, and admitted that its communication around the $1 a day offer was not as clear as it should have been.
In the first case, Vodafone pleaded guilty and was fined over $400,000 for misleading customers over the cost of its internet service.