Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) had to provide their opinion in a civil suit based on a claim of citizen F against Rostelecom’s Ural branch in the first half of this year. The plaintiff insisted on the need to protect her rights and to have the moral damage done to her made up for, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor reports.

It was determined in the course of the hearing that the plaintiff had not been receiving any landline phone bills for a while and applied to the phone company a number of times; the telecommunications operator, however, failed to provide her with any accurate information regarding her debt or list of her phone conversations, which was necessary to pay the bills in full and on time.

Due to Rostelecom’s inertia, the customer was deprived of an opportunity to make outgoing local, international, or long-distance calls due to circumstances that were actually beyond her control.

The court declared such a landline cut-off was illegal due to violation of the cut-off regulations (Paragraph 118 of the Regulations), as the defendant never properly informed the customer that its services could be halted.

The court also stated that it was unacceptable to list the plaintiff as a non-payer in the phone companies’ overdue debt monitoring and debt-colleting system in accordance with Article 17 (parts 1 and 2) Article 24 of the Personal Data Act.