The Supreme Court has affirmed a judgment awarding N5.5 million in damages against telecom giant, MTN Nigeria, over illegal deductions for unsolicited caller tunes, in what legal experts have described as a major victory for consumer rights in the country.
The apex court, in a lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Baba Idris, upheld the 2016 ruling of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, which awarded N5 million in general damages and N500,000 as cost of action to the plaintiff.
The ruling followed MTN’s failure to obtain consent before deducting funds from the customer’s account for caller tunes.
The decision reverses an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal, which had slashed the compensation to N400,000 and cost to N100,000, a move the Supreme Court described as “arbitrary and unsupported by law.”
Justice Idris said the Court of Appeal failed to provide any sound legal basis for the reduction, reinstating the original judgment in its entirety.
In her concurring opinion, Justice Helen Morenikeji Ogunwumiju noted that the lower appellate court did not adequately acknowledge the consumer protection issues at the heart of the case.
“It is obvious that while the learned trial judge appreciated the rights of consumers to be protected and properly recompensed for damage done to them by service providers, the Court of Appeal did not,” she ruled.
The case, which began at the FCT High Court under the then Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello, highlights long-standing concerns among Nigerian mobile users about unsolicited services and deductions by network providers.
Consumer rights advocates have hailed the ruling as a landmark step toward holding telecom companies accountable and a signal to other service providers engaging in similar practices.
Efforts by PLATFORM TIMES to get a response from MTN’s corporate communications office were unsuccessful as of press time.
The judgment is expected to boost ongoing campaigns by regulators and civil society groups for stricter enforcement of consumer protection laws in Nigeria’s telecom sector.
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