Updated | Melita to appeal €10,000 fine imposed by MCA

Melita will be appealing the decision by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) to impose a €10,000 administrative fine on the Company. 

Earlier today, the Malta Communications Authority had imposed a €10,000 fine on the communications provider Melita p.l.c. for repeatedly failing to honour its obligations regarding the process for termination of its services.

The MCA had investigated five consumer complaints which alleged that the communications provider did not act on requests to terminate their subscriptions.

Earlier this year, in July, the MCA had imposed other sanctions on Melita following a similar customer complaint.

The subscribers had notified the company of their wish to discontinue their subscriptions 30 days in advance, as per the terms of their contracts, however the services were either not discontinued after the 30 day period and/or bills continued to be sent to the subscribers, in spite of their cancellations.

The MCA had said that Melita only took remedial action after the matter was brought to their attention by the authority and warned the communications provider that it will be “closely monitoring the situation to ensure all procedures are followed.”

However in a reply released this afternoon, Melita stressed that the company had already taken steps to “address administration errors pertaining to specific customers who had complained to the Company and to the MCA”  prior to the MCA’s announcement,.

The company described the administrative fine as “completely unnecessary”, adding that “such punitive measures should not be considered as a revenue generation channel”.

Melita is contending that the MCA has reached its conclusions on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of existing regulations.

In its statment released this afternoon, the communications provider claims that the MCA ignored the provisions of the contractual Terms and Conditions, which have been in force and unchanged since 2012, saying that they “are in line with provisions issued by the MCA itself in July 2012”.

It points out that the complaints mentioned in the MCA’s decision arose at a time when Melita was in the process of implementing a new IT system, which had not gone to plan.

“The company is working 24/7 with its software contractors – a global international provider - to address the shortcomings in the shortest possible timeframes. Melita had ensured that it keeps its customers and the MCA informed of these developments at all times.”

As a conciliatory gesture for the inconvenience caused, Melita also informed its customers that it would be offering a number of free services for the period until September 2015.

Melita reassured its customers that all its procedures and internal control mechanisms are in line with the Laws of Malta and identical to other operators in the industry.

The MCA invited members of the public who encounter obstacles in the process of cancelling subscriptions to a communications service to contact the MCA on 21336840 or via email on [email protected].