The ACCC took Federal Court action against EDirect Pty Ltd (trading as VIPtel) following complaints from remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory that VIPtel were selling mobile phone plans in areas without the relevant network coverage.
The Federal Court found EDirect had breached the Trade Practices Act.
Claims made by VIPtel included:
calls to any mobile or landline would be charged at the cost of a local call;
customers would pay no more than a capped monthly fee;
the mobile phones could be used to send pictures and access the internet without additional charges;
a customer would be able to terminate the plan at any time at no additional charge; and
network coverage was available Australia-wide.
In addition to the consenting to Orders being made by the Federal Court, EDirect Pty Ltd provided the ACCC with an Undertaking to refund customers identified as living in areas of Australia with no Optus GSM Network coverage.
