The court overturned fines that the Consumer Protection Authority imposed on cellular companies

The court overturned fines that the Consumer Protection Authority imposed on telecommunications companies, and ruled that it had to repay the fines it collected alongside reimbursement of legal expenses. In aggregate, this amounts to more than NIS 5 million, which the PA will repay to four mobile companies, including reimbursement of fines and legal fees.
To Cellcom to receive NIS 3.4 million back, and to Partner and Pelephone together to receive NIS 1 million - now joins Golan Telecom, which will receive NIS 612,000 paid as a fine for violating the Consumer Protection Law - according to a Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ruling that received an appeal by Golan Telecom against Consumer Protection Authority. The appeal was filed in April 2018.
Golan Telecom's main claim against the fine was "extreme delay" in the timing of its fine: While the alleged offense was committed in 2015, the authority imposed the fine on it only in 2018.
The fine was imposed on Golan Telecom on the grounds that it charged for service even after consumers canceled the deal. These are routes that the company offered between 2012 and 2016 in the form of a pre-paid monthly payment. The authority's claim was that the service was discontinued even before the month of prepayment ended, in cases where consumers wanted to disconnect from the company.
The authority claimed that the investigation against Golan Telecom was opened following 17 complaints. Consider the amount of the fine, which was set at NIS 612,000, as per NIS 45,000 for each violation (in accordance with the authority of the authority), multiplying the number of complainants and after reducing the fine (because Golan Telecom had no previous violations).
In its ruling, the court relied on an appeal that Cellcom filed following a fine imposed on it by the Consumer Protection Authority, an appeal that was received only two months ago. The Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court ruled that the Authority would pay Cellcom a NIS 3.4 million fine. Here, too, the fine was levied on the grounds that Cellcom continued to charge monthly consumer fees full of consumers who wanted to disconnect from it, and not by the actual number of days they were connected. This fine was followed by 85 complaints received in 2016-2015. We note that consumer complaints have led to a change: in 2017, according to the Ministry of Communications' amendment to the licenses of cellular companies, they moved to a method of collection based on the actual duration of use.
 He criticized the conduct of the Consumer Protection Authority, whose complaints it relied on about a year and a half before the imposition of the fine, in mid-2018: "Just as a counter-investigation is at the heart of a judicial process - so is the immediate aftermath of the administrative enforcement process designed to get immediate deterrence. Hence the imposition of the sanction that was not carried out properly, is invalid. "
The said fine was canceled. The authority will pay Golan Telecom the fine that has already been paid, and it will also pay the company NIS 20,000 as legal fees.