Sean Pollock

Vodafone in £2m claim against Irish firm

UK-BASED telecommunications company Vodafone has hit Sim Local, an Irish SIM card distributor, with a £2m (€2.2m) counterclaim in the UK High Court for the activation of more than 140,000 cards, saying the surge in sales did not appear to be genuine.

In a court filing, Vodafone’s UK business claimed Sim Local’s UK subsidiary had been responsible for several SIM card activations over the summer of 2019 made by

“machines” and other devices. It said these could not be identified when compared to individual customers signing up for a phone plan.

Sim Local had previously sued the British company for £10m in June, claiming it was owed the money as commission payments for selling the carrier’s phone plans.

In the filing, first reported by legal news website Law360, Vodafone questioned the legitimacy of the SIM card activations, claiming unauthorised third parties had distributed the cards.

A surge in units being activated occurred from May to July 2019.

According to court documents, sales fell after a call between the two companies in September 2019. Vodafone said it had exercised its right to reduce commission payments that month.

Vodafone suggested card activations should have fallen as customers gradually began using SIM cards bought between June and September 2019. When the fall didn’t happen, it claimed a large number of the 145,000 activated cards had been “undertaken in order to generate high levels of commission”.

The telecommunications company said card activations had fallen to just 800 by March this year.

According to Law 360’s report, Vodafone is seeking the cost of the SIM cards, around £317,000 in commission it paid to Sim Local and £1.5m in connection fees.

In its claim for the £10m from June, Sim Local said it distributed the SIM cards in line with the contract’s trading terms. The company, part of the Travelwin Group, also sells cards through vending machines in large airports.