The people vs Telstra: class action lawsuit over 'unlawful' late fees

ACA Lawyers is seeking Telstra customers to come on board a new class-action lawsuit targeting the telco’s late fee system. Optus and Vodafone are also on the radar, but action against them appears to be on hold pending the results of the prime target: Australia’s largest provider.

“ACA Lawyers alleges that late payment fees are an unlawful penalty. Customers are entitled to be reimbursed for the fees they have been forced to pay their telcos which exceed the true cost to the service provider.”

There will be no upfront cost to any Telstra customers who seek to join the lawsuit, and Harbour Litigation Funding is taking care of the legal costs.

Tech journalism site ZDNet draws a link between this lawsuit and another similar case lodged against ANZ, Westpac and Citibank earlier this month over credit card late fees. This in turn came after a Federal Court ruling in that ANZ’s late fees did not reflect the actual cost to the bank, and were to be considered a penalty, not a fee.

Sources: ACA Lawyers website, ZDNet

Alex Angove-Plumb

Digital Content Editor

Alex Angove-Plumb is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut and an award-winning journalist. He's been in the tech publishing industry since 2010, putting him a few short years away from the title of Grizzled Ancient in his chosen profession. He was an original WhistleOut-er before running NBN Co's corporate blog for two years, then moving on to a lengthy stint at CHOICE. Now he's come home.

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