The district court of Göttingen has issued a judgment (Az.: 4 O 78/23 dated September 1st, 2023) that should interest every internet user: A mobile phone customer who had no mobile phone reception at his place of residence for a long time, gets almost 3000 euros in compensation. Although he could use his cell phone anywhere else.
The case
The customer has two mobile phone contracts (EUR 5.99 and EUR 6.99) with the company, which offers mobile phone services under different brands. The disruption to the mobile network began in February 2022. Both the customer and his family members were unable to use their cell phones at home for around ten months. Outside of this area, however, customers were able to use their mobile phones.
The customer reported the fault several times, also via the arbitration board of the Federal Network Agency. But the mobile phone company did not eliminate the disruption at the site in Göttingen. Instead, the mobile phone company used the excuse that there was no complete failure and that the customer could use the WLAN at home for phone calls. According to the company, the transmission mast was overloaded.
The customer then demanded compensation from his mobile operator under Section 58 (3) TKG, which the customer calculated for different contracts and periods of time. The plaintiff named a storm as a possible cause of the outages: “From February 17th, 2022, probably due to a storm, there was a failure of the mobile network technology of the O mobile network installed on the transmission mast on the district building in G”.
However, the mobile phone company replied that the plaintiff and his family made even more calls during the disruption period than in comparable months of the previous year, as lawyer Kotz explains in his contribution. The unnamed mobile phone company refused to pay the customer compensation. An arbitration procedure by the Federal Network Agency also did not bring a solution. Therefore, the plaintiff went to court.
The Court’s Decision
The district court of Göttingen partially upheld the lawsuit. The mobile phone company has to pay 2,810 euros plus interest to the plaintiff. The costs of the legal dispute are shared by both parties: the plaintiff pays 63 percent and the sued company 38 percent.
The court ruled on the amount of the compensation (quoted from the lawyer Kotz):
According to § 58 paragraph 3 sentence 2 TKG, the plaintiff can charge 5 euros or 10 percent for the third and fourth day after receipt of the fault report and 10 euros or 20 percent of the contractually agreed monthly fees from the fifth day onwards for contracts with a constant monthly charge a fee, whichever is higher. In the present case, the contractually agreed monthly payments are €5.99 or €6.99, so that the daily flat rate represents the higher compensation. The fault report regarding the number 123 was made on March 22, 2022, so that a claim exists from March 25, 2022.
Office Kotz
The court continues: “Based on this, he is entitled to compensation of €2,810.00 for dialing 123, which is made up as follows:
- 25th – 31st March 2022: 2 days at 5.00 euros, 5 days at 10.00 euros 60.00 euros
- April 2022: 30 days at 10.00 euros 300.00 euros
- May 2022: 31 days at 10.00 euros 310.00 euros
- June 2022: 30 days at 10.00 euros 300.00 euros
- July 2022: 31 days at 10.00 euros 310.00 euros
- August 2022: 31 days at 10.00 euros 310.00 euros
- September 2022: 30 days at 10.00 euros 300.00 euros
- October 2022: 31 days at 10.00 euros 310.00 euros
- November 2022: 30 days at 10.00 euros 300.00 euros
- December 2022: 31 days at 10.00 euros 310.00 euros
- Total: 2,810.00 euros
Then there is the interest.
Attorney Kotz believes it is possible that this decision could set a precedent for other courts to follow. In any case, Internet users should make a note of this judgment so that they can refer to it if necessary.
In this context, it is important: Always report a failure to your Internet provider immediately. The Internet provider or the mobile company must fix the failure within two days, otherwise you can expect financial compensation.
