Misleading sales letters
Telekom successfully defends itself against 1N Telecom
8/18/2023 8:43 p.m
Numerous Deutsche Telekom customers may have become suspicious in the past few months. A sales letter advertises a different telephone tariff – and the sender is a completely different company. The conduct of 1N Telecom is now put to the test.
The Düsseldorf-based company 1N Telecom is no longer allowed to send its current advertising letters nationwide to fixed-line customers and customers of Deutsche Telekom. This was decided by the District Court of Düsseldorf in an injunction at the request of Deutsche Telekom.
The cover letters to the customers are misleading in their presentation and do not make it sufficiently clear that it is not just a question of changing tariffs, but of changing the telecommunications provider. The 8th chamber for commercial matters also prohibited 1N Telecom from submitting a termination based on the cover letter to the responsible interface as a change of provider. Deutsche Telekom had requested this because the contract on which it was based “came about unfairly,” explained a Telekom lawyer.
According to his lawyer Elmar Kloss, the Düsseldorf competitor sent “a million” nationwide in April 2023 and “another 4,000 letters to fixed-line customers” in June. Numerous Deutsche Telekom customers were also written to personally and with their telephone numbers. The company took the customer data from the phone book, said Kloss. In the letter, 1N advertised a specific DSL tariff. In the sober and businesslike letter, the Düsseldorf judges lacked a clear indication “that it is not just a matter of changing your tariff, but a change of provider,” emphasized the judge.
According to information from Deutsche Telekom and the Federation of Consumer Organizations, numerous Telekom customers nationwide believed in a tariff change letter from the Bonn telecommunications giant and signed it. Only later did they notice the change in provider. If the consent was revoked and the contract was withdrawn, 1N Telecom demanded a flat-rate compensation payment of almost EUR 420. The district court also prohibited this. The company’s business conduct has long been the subject of legal disputes.