Romania’s National Communications Authority (ANCOM) has sanctioned local telecom operator Vodafone for not limiting to EUR 50 per month, without VAT, the consumption of mobile data for its customers who travelled abroad.

This is required by the EU laws to protect the customers against the bill shock. In telecommunications, the bill shock means the negative reaction a subscriber can experience if their phone bill has unexpected charges.

Besides a fine of RON 100,000 (EUR 22,400), the company needs to return to its clients the extra amounts it has charged from July 2012 to the present for failing to comply with the EU law.

The maximum ceiling was introduced to protect consumers against the shock they can experience when seeing the high invoices generated by data consumption in roaming, according to ANCOM. The communications authority checked Vodafone following a notice received this year.

editor@romania-insider.com