European Court of Justice: Calling customer service cannot be more expensive than normal phone calls

The European Court just rules that calling customer service cannot be more expensive than normal phone calls. In the case of the German company Comtech, this electronic web shop used a paid 0180-number to reach its helpdesk. The German organization fighting against unfair business practices appealed to the District Court of Stuttgart to put an end to these additional costs for the caller. The District Court referred the case to the European Court in Luxembourg.

The case related to the interpretation of a European Directive which states that customers of a company's customer service should be able to call for the standard call rate. But what exactly is the “standard rate” remains unclear.

The general principle is that service should be free of charge.

The European Court ruled that customer service should not be more expensive than a “fixed line call of cell call”. It does not really matter if a company makes a profit or not regarding the additional telephone costs. Higher costs discourage customers to request information, to claim the product warranty or to cancel their subscription, as explained by the Court.

“We are happy with this ruling”, stated the Consumers Association. “Service has to be free of charge. That is a point of principle.” Companies should only charge normal call rates, which many companies already do.” 

This post was written by Tip Top Lawyer.

Verdict of the European Court - Incest Is Prohibited

The European Court decided that the prohibition of filial love (aka incest) is legitimate. A young man from Saxony (in Germany) had filed the complaint. He sired four children by his sister; two are handicapped. He is currently serving three years of his prison sentence.

Siblings have medically speaking a high risk of begetting a handicapped child. That is also one of the reasons for the incest article in the Criminal Code. According to some lawyers, this contradicts the spirit of the law concerning equal treatment. “In such a case, it should also be forbidden for handicapped people to become offspring,” one of them stated. Really?!

For now, prohibiting sibling love is not infringing on anyone's Human Rights. As such, the young German father is correctly serving three years in jail.

The sister (and ex-lover) of the father does not want to have anything to do with her brother. “It’s OK that incest is a felony,” she said. “I don’t have any guilt. I was very young and wanted to be loved. But I would never do it again. I do not want to have to deal with my brother ever again.”

The 28-year old mother denies that she is fighting the 35-year old father for custody of their 6-year old daughter. The girl is the only of the four incest children still living with the mother.

"We only communicate via our lawyers. There are no visiting rights; he is not allowed to visit our daughter. She also does not want to see him," declared the mother. "I do not want another fight about my kids. I do not want Social Services to also take away my youngest." Her three other children are being raised by foster families.

As a lawyer and a human being, I personally applaud the decision of the European Court – not in the least for the well-being of the children....