Spark pleads guilty to over-billing

Spark has pleaded guilty to overbilling charges brought under the Fair Trading Act.

The charges were filed by the Commerce Commission over two issues that affected more than 100,000 customers. Charges related to a third issue were dropped.

Penalties will be set at a later hearing. Spark faces fines of up to $600,000 per charge, or $1.2 million in total. The ComCom filed charges in July, saying:

● Letters offering new Spark customers a $100 account credit for subscribing to a particular broadband plan failed to mention the offer could only be redeemed by phoning Spark. The offers allegedly created the impression that customers signing up online would receive the credit, when they would not, the ComCom claims;

● The telco over-billed excustomers. From June 2, 2014, Spark’s terms and conditions said charges would stop 30 days after a customer gave notice to terminate their contract. However, a customer’s final bill included charges for the entire next monthly billing period regardless of when the Spark service stopped.

Spark said earlier around 135,000 customers were affected by overbilling, with amounts varying between $1 and $100. It had proactively approached customers and encouraged them to claim a refund.

“These were all system-based errors caused by genuine mistakes, with no malicious intent involved on the part of Spark,” Spark managing director Simon Moutter said.