UPDATE: MTS says client claims 30 bln rbl in moral damage

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MOSCOW/VORONEZH, Aug 17 (PRIME) -- An MTS subscriber from the central Russian city of Tambov has filed a 30 billion ruble suit against the big mobile operator as compensation for moral damage after the carrier allegedly wrote off free minutes, according to MTS’ report for April–June, seen by PRIME on Thursday.

“Mr. A.V. Melekhov field a suit against MTS to claim non-economic damage to the amount of 30 billion rubles…The lawsuit was rejected … on January 31, 2017. The decision was left without changes on April 10, 2017, by an appeal motion of the Tambov regional court,” MTS said.

According to court materials, Melekhov has a tariff plan with a monthly payment of 450 rubles and 3 gigabytes of traffic and 500 minutes of calls. When the bundle tariff has been used, the client is charged 1.5 rubles per minute for an outgoing call. The monthly payment and addition of new package minutes were done on the 22nd day of each month. The plaintiff said that the operator illegally wrote off free minutes, which were included into the tariff, in the early hours of June 22, 2016.

MTS’ spokesperson Dmitry Solodovnikov said that the plaintiff argued about six minutes, while all settlements were accurate and transparent, which was confirmed by court decisions.

In July, Melekhov filed a cassation appeal, but a spokesperson for the Tambov regional court said that the court has not found grounds to transfer the motion to the presidium.

“The decision of the lower court stays in force,” the spokesperson said, adding that the claim was not handed over because the courts did not breach the substantive and procedural law when considering the matter.

(59.6521 rubles – U.S. $1)

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