– It’s almost as if they are deceiving – they take money from people who are completely unnecessary. Kristin Johansen in Gjerstad is furious with Telenor. Her old mother lives alone in Narvik, over 160 miles away. Last year, she discovered that Telenor sent a bill to her mother every month, with NOK 79 in invoice fees. In one year, the telecom giant collected NOK 948 in fees from the almost 92-year-old minimum pensioner in Narvik. – She had a mobile subscription that cost NOK 150-160 a month – and then she has to pay NOK 79 in invoice fees. I loudly objected to that when I discovered it, but I was flatly rejected, says Johansen. Kristin Johansen finds it incomprehensible that her mother has to pay NOK 79 to receive a paper invoice, when the bills are automatically charged to her bank account. Photo: Snorre Tønset / news Telenor requires customers to have an agreement on electronic invoices – eFaktura. If not, they get the invoice in the post and have to pay NOK 79 in fees. But eFaktura requires the customer to have online banking, and Johansen’s mother does not. – She doesn’t understand data. If you think about all the old people around who have the same problem. I think it’s absolutely terrible, says Johansen. Prohibited to profit from invoice fees The Consumer Council has long criticized several industries for charging sky-high invoice fees. They estimate that half of Norwegian households receive at least one overpriced invoice a year. From 1 January 2023, there was a change in the law which should put an end to this. Now the Financial Agreements Act requires that no one can charge more than it actually costs to send the bill to you. – The law is ready, says Inger Lise Blyverket, director of the Consumer Council. Photo: Hanna Johre / news Telenor is one of many companies that have not reduced the fees. The Consumer Council reacts strongly to this. – It is not allowed to get paid so well. The new Financial Agreements Act is clear in its message to everyone who issues an invoice: You can get paid, but no more than it actually costs you to do so, says Inger Lise Blyverket. Costs a fraction So what does it really cost to send out a paper invoice for which Telenor charges NOK 79? The Consumer Council has previously estimated that the price is somewhere between NOK 5 and 10. Telenor will not state what the cost is. But another company will – the power company Motkraft. They send a paper invoice if the customer cannot or does not want to pay digitally. The cost is a fraction of what Telenor charges in fees. – We charge six kroner – that’s the same as it costs us to send out the paper invoice, says Bjørn Spielser, general manager of Motkraft. It costs NOK six to send a paper invoice, says Bjørn Spieler, general manager of the electricity company Motkraft. Photo: Snorre Tønset / news – Have you covered all costs? – Correct. It goes completely by itself and requires nothing from us. The only difference is getting the paper sent out, says Spieler. Telenor silent for half a year Telenor still charges NOK 79 for sending paper invoices – half a year after the new law was introduced. All the way back in January, the Consumer Council wrote to Telenor and asked what they wanted to do about the high fees. The telecom giant replied that they first had to familiarize themselves with the new rules. Telenor spent half a year answering the Consumer Council about invoice fees. – Comical, says the Consumer Council. Photo: Snorre Tønset / news – It’s almost a bit comical. It is a very simple provision and there is little room for interpretation. We must be able to expect that a large company such as Telenor – even a state-owned one – will be able to familiarize itself with all regulations – also from the first day it applies, says Blyverket. Only a little over a week ago, after news sent questions about the matter to Telenor, did the Consumer Council receive a response. There, Telenor writes that they believe the Financial Agreements Act does not apply to fees on paper invoices. Read the full response from Telenor to the Consumer Council: It is Telenor’s understanding that § 2-4 of the Financial Agreements Act covers payment instruments and means of payment, and that fees on paper invoices are therefore not covered. Telenor has an invoice fee for paper invoices, among other things for environmental reasons and to motivate customers to switch to eFaktura. Customers who do not want an invoice fee can request an electronic invoice (eFaktura). Telenor has many value chains and systems and it is demanding to establish joint solutions. Telenor has therefore not invested in several parallel solutions for digital distribution of invoices. However, Telenor offers eFaktura without a fee. This can be ordered in the customer’s payment platforms, for example in online banking, vipps, or by contacting the bank. Telenor sends the eInvoice to the person who is registered as the legal owner, or the person who the legal owner has requested to be the payer. A Telenor customer can thus register another person who pays and this person will then be sent the eInvoice on behalf of the legal owner. This can be arranged by the legal owner contacting Telenor’s customer service. Correspondingly, there are also several banks that offer solutions where you can be authorized to receive eInvoices for others, share access to eInvoices with others or be the manager of an account for others. Non- or little-digital customers therefore have the option of having the eInvoice sent to another person. Telenor is very understanding that some customers find digital solutions challenging. This affects not only the telecom industry, but society in general. We want to help as many customers as possible switch to digital solutions. At the same time, we offer a free invoice solution for non-digital customers, in the form of a postal order. We recommend customers who need help with this to contact our customer service. Telenor is aware that the waiting time for customer service is crucial for us to be able to deliver good customer experiences, and to be able to provide the customer service our customers are entitled to. We therefore aim to answer 80% of all customers within 60 seconds. In the past year, at times (especially last summer/autumn) we have not had sufficient capacity to be able to deliver on our target, and unfortunately some customers have waited longer than we would like before they are answered. In the past year, 58% of all inquiries have been answered within 60 seconds and the average waiting time has been just under 2 minutes. Telenor, like its customers, benefits from short response times. We therefore continuously work to have an acceptable response time so that those who need to get in touch with us do not face long waiting times. Incomprehensible – The Consumer Council does not understand how Telenor can think that fees on paper invoices are not covered by the Financial Agreements Act, says Inger Lise Blyverket. She points out that the Ministry of Justice determined in November last year that the law regulates invoice fees and that the fee cannot be greater than the cost of sending the invoice. The Ministry of Justice determined in November last year that the new legislation applies to paper invoices. Photo: Screen dump – It is understandable that Telenor’s management finds it difficult to get rid of a payment trap that probably yields well over NOK 300 million in annual revenue. But as a supposedly serious company, we expect Telenor to follow the law and behave too well to exploit what is probably the most loyal part of the customer base, says Blyverket. Believes the law does not apply to paper invoices news has for some time requested an interview with Telenor in the work on this case. But the company has not found anyone who can sit for an interview. Instead, we get a response to an e-mail from Telenor’s head of private markets, Ric Brown. – We have assessed our practice in relation to the new Financial Agreements Act. This does not limit the possibility of charging a fee for paper invoices, since this is not a means of payment or a payment instrument, he writes. Telenor believes that the Financial Agreements Act does not apply to the sending of paper invoices, writes head of personal market Ric Brown in an e-mail to news. Photo: Martin Fjellanger / Telenor – The Consumer Council thinks you are breaking the law – what is your reaction to that? – Telenor is of the opinion that we act in accordance with the Financial Agreements Act, and do not charge fees contrary to the Financial Agreements Act for the use of a payment instrument or means of payment. The Consumer Protection Authority reacts It is the Consumer Protection Authority – not the Consumer Council – that is responsible for ensuring that companies comply with the Financial Agreements Act towards consumers. They react to the fact that Telenor believes that the law does not apply to fees for paper invoices. – In our view, there is no doubt that the Financial Agreements Act sets a clear framework for what size the invoice fee can be, and actual costs are simply the cost of printing out an invoice and sending it in the post – i.e. postage. That’s what Tonje Drevland, deputy director of the Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority, says. She adds: – It goes without saying that it is not 79 kroner. The Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority will tighten the control that companies do not charge too high invoice fees, says deputy director Tonje Drevland. Photo: John-André Samuelsen – Telenor tells news that they use invoice prices as a tool to get customers to switch to digital solutions – which are more environmentally friendly. What do you think about it? – The law does not allow it to be used as a tool. There are consumers who are not digital and cannot become so. It is therefore important that the law sets a framework. The Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority announces increased control. – We will supervise the law’s limitations from the autumn. It is then important that those who invoice consumers follow the law’s requirements and make sure they do not charge too much, says Drevland.
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The Consumer Council believes that Telenor charges illegal invoice fees – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
