Court denies deadline for using mobile phone credits.
According to the case's rapporteur, Federal Judge Souza Prudente, the measure constitutes an advance confiscation of the amounts paid for the public telephone service, which are owed to consumers. The decision must be enforced throughout the national territory, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 50, but an appeal is still possible.
Luciano Nascimento
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia - The courts have prohibited mobile phone operators from setting expiration dates for prepaid credits throughout the country. The decision was made by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1), following an appeal by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) against a ruling by the 5th Federal Court of Pará that upheld the validity of prepaid mobile phone credits. The decision must be enforced nationwide, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 50, but an appeal is still possible.
According to the case's rapporteur, Federal Judge Souza Prudente, establishing expiration dates for prepaid cell phone credits constitutes an advance confiscation of the amounts paid for the public telephone service, which are owed to consumers.
"The abusiveness of the highlighted time limitation is evident, since, in addition to violating the principles of equality and non-discrimination among users of the public telephone service, enshrined in Article 3, Paragraph 3, of Law No. 9.472/97, it imposes unjustified discrimination and unequal treatment on users with lower purchasing power in relation to other users of these public telephone services."
The judge declared null and void the contractual clauses and Anatel regulations that stipulate the loss of acquired credits after their expiration date or that condition the continuity of service on the purchase of new credits. Souza Prudente also prohibited the operators Vivo, Oi, Amazônia Celular, and TIM from subtracting credits or imposing expiration dates for their use. The companies will also have to reactivate, within 30 days, the service of users interrupted due to the expiration of credits and reimburse the exact amount of the balance existing at the time of suspension.
The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) established, through a resolution, that credits may be subject to an expiration date, with the provider required to offer, at a minimum, credits with a validity of 90 to 180 days. In the case of adding new credits before the contract's expiration date, unused credits with expired validity will be revalidated for the same period as the newly acquired credits. In its appeal, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) argued that the expiration of credits is "an affront to property rights and constitutes unjust enrichment on the part of the operators" and considered the "contractual clauses abusive" because they unbalance the relationship between the consumer and the operators providing the services.
Editing: Fabio Massalli