Woman must pay €44,700 phone bill

A WOMAN will have to pay a €44,700 mobile phone bill that was rung up on her company phone account – with the bill running to 10 tightly-typed pages.

The woman, who runs a business in Moselle-Est, had tried to get the bill overturned but it was found that she had ignored nine warning emails about the growing costs.

She had loaned her company phone sim – which had unlimited calls - to a friend who had then passed it on to his son who went on holiday to Morocco. The son then used it for internet access and calls while in Morocco and ran up a total of €36,000 of web roaming charges.

The woman turned to consumer advice group UFC-Que Choisir for help but it said it could not intervene in inter-company disputes. However, initial checks had showed that mobile phone operator SFR had sent nine warnings to her business warning it of the bill.

UFC-Que Choisir advises anyone travelling outside France to cancel “roaming” on their phone’s settings and warned that “unlimited” contracts rarely included free phone calls abroad.