{"id":21269,"date":"2024-12-20T17:21:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T17:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=21269"},"modified":"2024-12-20T17:27:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T17:27:38","slug":"appeal-court-fines-mtn-%e2%82%a615m-for-unsolicited-messages-and-caller-tunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=21269","title":{"rendered":"Appeal Court Fines MTN \u20a615m for Unsolicited Messages and Caller Tunes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abuja division of Appeal Court, has awarded N15 million as general damages against MTN Nigeria<\/a> Communications Limited for disturbing one of it\u2019s customer\u2019s phone number with unsolicited messages and callertunes, without the customer\u2019s subscription to these services.<\/p>\n

The Appeal Court passed the judgment today, saying that MTN\u2019s action was a violation of the right to privacy and quiet enjoyment of airtime purchased by Barrister Ezugwu Emmanuel Anene, a public interest lawyer.<\/p>\n

The above judgment was delivered by a three-man panel led by Justice Okon Abang.<\/p>\n

The matter arose from the judgment of the High Court of the FCT, delivered by Justice U.P. Kekemeke, on September 22, 2021.<\/p>\n

The claimant, Anene, sought a declaration that the eighty-eight unsolicited calls made by MTN to him at odd hours caused embarrassment, inconvenience, distraction, and anxiety, thereby breaching his right to privacy.<\/p>\n

Anene, through his legal team, also sought over N200 million as general damages for the \u201cdisturbing unsolicited messages sent to the claimant weekly,\u201d as well as for the \u201cimposition of callertunes on the claimant\u2019s mobile number.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued before the High Court that although he subscribed to MTN\u2019s network services, he never signed up for the weekly clarion child guidance, counselling, or caller tune services provided by MTN.<\/p>\n

He said Instead, \u201cthe MTN inundated him with a large volume of messages and deducted money from his airtime for unsolicited services from July 2016 to March 21, 2018, at inappropriate hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that his refusal to answer calls from certain numbers denied him the opportunity to receive important business calls, while the strange calls were continuously recurring and embarrassing.<\/p>\n

In defence, MTN, represented by its staff member Emmanuel Iteade, informed the High Court that when a prospective subscriber purchases a SIM starter kit, the prepaid terms and conditions are clearly placed in the kit to allow careful review.<\/p>\n

Iteaade further argued that MTN did not breach the claimant\u2019s right to privacy or the quiet enjoyment of his airtime and did not make any fraudulent or illegal deductions from his airtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll services complained about by the claimant were subscribed to by him, and the defendant merely debited him for the services,\u201d the respondent said.<\/p>\n

Delivering judgment in the suit, the lower Court held that Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, guarantees and protects citizens\u2019 privacy, including their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations, and telegraphic communications.<\/p>\n

The court also noted that MTN\u2019s witness, when cross-examined, admitted that the reference in the company\u2019s terms and conditions was \u201cso tiny, he cannot read it,\u201d which the judge considered to be \u201cpotent\u201d evidence.<\/p>\n

The lower Court then declared that the numerous unsolicited text messages and callertunes sent to the claimant\u2019s phone, without his subscription to them, as well as the subsequent deductions from his airtime, constituted a breach of his right to privacy and quiet enjoyment of his airtime and phone.<\/p>\n

The court perpetually restrained MTN from sending unsolicited text messages or imposing callertunes and deductions on the claimant\u2019s airtime. While also awarded N300, 000 as general damages but noted that the claimant could not sufficiently prove the assertions about the 88 calls.<\/p>\n

Dissatisfied with the N300,000 awarded, the claimant approached the Appeal Court for redress, arguing that the amount was too low.<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s legal team also cross-appealed, stating that the total deductions from the claimant amounted to about N14,000 and that the N300,000 award was generous.<\/p>\n

However, the Justices of Appeal Court\u00a0agreed that the unsolicited text messages caused the appellant anxiety, adding that MTN was likely profiting substantially from this practice, and Nigerians \u201cmay not know this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court opined that the trial court should have awarded exemplary damages against MTN, a foreign company, as a \u201cdeterrent\u201d, noting that the money generated from such charges was not legitimate income for MTN.<\/p>\n

The judge stated, \u201cIf MTN had sent unsolicited messages to 10 million phones at the time, owned by innocent Nigerians, it would have unlawfully enriched itself\u201d to over a trillion naira.<\/p>\n

The judge, delivering the unanimous judgment of the three-member Appeal Court panel, set aside the N300,000 general damages imposed by the lower court.<\/p>\n

The Appeal Court agreed with the High Court that the claimant had complained to MTN and made a personal complaint to its customer care team.<\/p>\n

It also agreed that the claimant had activated the Do Not Disturb (DND) option, but despite these efforts, MTN persisted in sending unsolicited messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all, I award N15 million in damages in favour of the appellant and against MTN. The appeal succeeds and is allowed,\u201d the judge concluded.<\/p>\n

The court also dismissed MTN\u2019s cross-appeal for lacking in merit.<\/p>\n

Source- nairametrics<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Abuja division of Appeal Court, has awarded N15 million as general damages against MTN Nigeria Communications Limited for disturbing one of it\u2019s customer\u2019s phone number with unsolicited messages and callertunes, without the customer\u2019s subscription to these services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9701,1033,9703,9700,141,9702],"class_list":["post-21269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-15m","tag-appeal-court","tag-caller-tunes","tag-fine","tag-mtn","tag-unsolicited-messages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21274,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions\/21274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}