Cellcos face EUR5.1m fines

Four Italian cellcos have been fined a total of EUR5.1 million (USD5.9 million) for illegally activating premium rate services without the end user’s permission. Telecom Italia and H3G have been hit with penalties of EUR1.75 million each, while Wind Telecommunicazioni and Vodafone Italy face fines of EUR800,000 apiece. The penalties have been levied by Italy’s competition authority, the Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), and relate to premium services such as games, horoscopes and music streaming services which come pre-installed when a user takes out a new subscription.