In his conclusions delivered on Thursday 10 November to the European Court of Justice, Advocate General Szpunar said that the cost of a call to an after-sales telephone number should not exceed the cost of a standard call.
This case (C-568/15) involves the after self-service of the German company Comtech, which specialises in the sale of electric and electronic devices and which has a special premium number with a non-geographical prefix. The cost of customer calls to the special number can be as high as €0.14 a minute from the fixed German network and €0.42 a minute from the mobile network. A normal period for standard calls stands respectively at €0.05 and €0.21 per minute for fixed and mobile networks.
A German association promoting trade interests approached the Stuttgart regional court in an effort to put an end to what it believes is an “unfair” practice. The court subsequently approached the European Court of Justice to establish whether the 2011/83/EU directive on consumer rights opposes the application of this kind of tariff.
The advocate general points out that according to this directive, member states should ensure that the costs invoiced to consumers are not higher than those for a standard call to a fixed line or to a mobile number. He considered that in addition to dissuading consumers from making contact with a professional for any kind of question, a higher rate than that for a normal telephone line would incur telephone assistance costs that should now be included in the price paid by the consumer when purchasing a product. The advocate general also emphasised that the share taken by the operator for these overpriced telephone calls was not high in this specific case. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)