The cost of a call to an after-sales telephone number must not exceed the cost of a standard call. This is what decided the European Court of the European Union in decision rendered today in a case of a German consumers association (Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main) against a retailer (Comtech GmbH) which was to charge expensive tariffs open customers calling the after-sale service telephone number.

The practice of charging unfair and expensive telephone tariffs to people requiring after- sale assistance is quite common and particularly detested by consumers. Traditional and online retailers, airlines, insurance and financial companies, utilities, may be particularly nasty in this respect.  The paradox is that the expensive tariffs did not encourage companies to be efficient and customer-friendly. The intervention of the European court has therefore stopped an unfair practice that national authorities were not able to control, apparently.

Under the relevant rules (Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights) Member States must ensure that where a trader operates a telephone line for the purpose of being contacted in relation to contracts concluded with consumers, consumers are not to be bound to pay more than the basic rate for calls to that line. However, the concept of a ‘basic rate’ is not defined by the directive.

To solve this issue, the European court stated  that the concept of ‘basic rate’ must be interpreted as meaning that call charges relating to a contract concluded with a trader to a telephone helpline operated by the trader may not exceed the cost of a call to a standard geographic landline or mobile telephone line. According to the Court, in everyday language ‘the basic rate’ refers to the standard cost of a call. Both the context in which that concept occurs in the directive and the purpose of that directive, namely to ensure a high level of consumer protection, confirm that the concept must be understood in that ordinary sense of the term.

While the case concern an internal dispute, it will interesting to see whether further cases may arise when after-sales services are rendered to customers resident in another Member State. The matter needs to be followed up.