A lawsuit against a telecommunications company for sending
unsolicited commercial text messages recently ended in Nanjing,
capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, with a ruling that the
company compensate the plaintiff 5,000 yuan (US$625). This was the
first such case to be heard in China.
Wang Jun, a Nanjing native, accused the Jiangsu branch of China
Unicom, one of the country's three biggest telecommunication firms,
of disturbing his life by relentlessly barraging him with text
messages since March.
Wang demanded a public apology from Jiangsu Unicom in local
newspapers and compensation of 40,000 yuan (US$5,000) for mental
anguish. Wang stored in his mobile phone as proof 39 messages sent
within 37 days between May 19 and June 26.
The messages Wang received said he had a chance to win a prize
from Jiangsu Unicom. He could have replied "U" to join the game, or
"0000" to decline, but either reply would have cost 0.1 yuan. Wang
didn't respond with "0000" to stop the message for fear of being
set up for another of the automatic-fee traps frequently reported
by the media.
Wang called Jiangsu Unicom's customer service hotline and
visited its office to ask for a cessation of the messages instead
but was told that they could only be stopped by replying to them
using the "0000" number.
Wang, a long time sufferer of neurasthenia and depression, said
he was tormented greatly by the messages. "The messages even
arrived as late as 10 at night," said Wang. "I was forced to look
at them again and again since my mobile cannot delete a message
without opening it first."
According to Zhu Dan, a staff member at the company's
Value-Added Service Department, the messages bombarding Wang were
part of an incentive program targeting the millions of clients who
send more than ten messages per month.
Users had a chance to win a two yuan (US$0.25) mobile fee if
they agreed to participate in the program, he added. The company's
system would stop sending subscribers the messages after a certain
period if they ignored them, Zhu said, without specifying how long
that period was.
After tough negotiations the case ended on Tuesday with Jiangsu
Unicom and Wang agreeing on 5,000 yuan in compensation.
The judge who ruled on the case, surnamed Liu, said the case was
made tough by the country's lack of a law specifically describing
how commercial text messages might infringe on the rights of
users.
According to Tian Kan, a law expert with Nanjing Traditional
Medicine University, it's sometimes hard to regulate the big
players in China's telecommunications industry. "New controlling
regulations should protect customers," Tian said.
(China Daily August 10, 2006)