Vasil Kisil & Partners Successfully Represented a Telecommunication Company in a Dispute Related to the Payment for Services

Lawyers of Vasil Kisil & Partners successfully represented MIIT, telecommunication operator, in a dispute related to the payment for provided telecommunication services (IP telephony).

All three levels of courts held that the telecommunication company's claims relating to the payment for services were reasonable and thus recovered from the subscriber its debt, including penalties.

The courts did not accept the subscriber's arguments who claimed that it neither ordered nor consumed international telecommunication services to such an extent (international calls were made from the phone numbers assigned to such subscriber).

Likewise, the courts dismissed an agreement that there was an unauthorized tampering with the equipment, since it is subscriber’s responsibility to protect logins and passwords. Accordingly, it was the subscriber who borne all risks related to restricted information being used by third parties and all loss related thereto, which could be inflicted either to it (as subscriber) or to the operator and other persons. Thus, an unauthorized tampering with equipment is not a reason to release the subscriber from payment for the telecommunication services provided to it.

“Telecom fraud (fraud involving the misuse of telecommunication services by tampering with telecommunication equipment) is quite a widespread phenomenon in the modern technology world. Subscribers usually refuse paying bills resulting from unauthorized tampering with their telecommunication equipment. However, the court practice in similar cases in Ukraine shows that the subscriber is obligated to pay for the services, though he or she is not prevented from recovering the damage caused by person guilty in unauthorized tampering”, comments Oleg Kachmar, counsel, Vasil Kisil & Partners.

Vasil Kisil & Partners' team composed of the Alexander Borodkin, partner, Oleg Kachmar, counsel, and associate Yuriy Kolos provided legal support for the project.

MIIT is a telecommunication operator that provides Internet, telephony, analog and digital interactive television, collocation and mail domain support services.