Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
THE practices of controversial telecom firm Yourtel are to be raised with the EU Commission by the Consumer Association of Ireland after the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed the firm was the subject of more then 500 complaints to regulator Comreg.
Yourtel is part of a German-based group called Prime Holding GBMH. The MOS also revealed that some of the group’s other firms have been prosecuted by authorities and consumer groups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Ireland, the firm has been threatening consumers with legal action and debt collectors if they do not pay bills for contracts that some customers claim they did not agree to.
CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell said he would bring the issue to the European Consumer Consultative Group at its next meeting with the commission in June.
‘I intend to raise this issue, advising them what has happened in Ireland with a view to seeing if there are any other interactions from other member states,’ he said. Each member state is represented on the ECCG, which meets the commission quarterly to raise consumer issues of concern. Many complaints against Yourtel relate to cold calls in which often elderly people find themselves bound to an oral contract they say they did not realise they had agreed to.
In a statement to the MOS last night a lawyer for Prime Holding denied that Yourtel had breached consumer rights. ‘All consumers have been informed about their right to cancellation orally during the telephone call,’ it said.
‘Due to a slip-up, a very few customers did not receive the cancellation form together with their confirmation of the contract. All these customers did receive a cancellation form afterwards and a reimbursement of all so far paid fees.’Â
