We stand up for your legal rights
Can I sue TalkTalk over lost film downloads?
Q Now that TalkTalk has closed its TV store (Issue 670, page 8), I can’t access around 75 films I bought. I’ve not been offered any compensation, which I’m furious about. Can I sue TalkTalk for removing this content?
Gerald Schafer
A Gerald could take TalkTalk to the small claims court, but we doubt it would be worthwhile because there’s no case law or precedent about losing digital content.
Legally, TalkTalk has done nothing wrong. When Gerald downloaded films and TV programmes through the store, he was technically only renting them, not buying them to keep.
This is different to when you buy a physical product, in which case you own the medium that the content is on – namely, the disc.
Furthermore, companies don’t have to keep digital services alive unless they’ve stated they would in their terms and conditions. That means customers like Gerald aren’t entitled to any refunds from TalkTalk.
However, some customers say they’ve been offered £25 in compensation – see the company’s community forum: www.snipca.com/48031. TalkTalk accepts that this doesn’t cover the total amount of purchased content, but takes into account “depreciation costs and availability of content on other platforms”.
Gerald could contact TalkTalk and ask for this compensation, but if he wants more money or further help he should consider contacting the Ombudsman CISAS (www.cedr.com).
It can investigate and might ask TalkTalk to offer more compensation, but we think that’s unlikely because the company hasn’t broken the law. We’ll ask TalkTalk what its position is on compensation, particularly whether the amount it offers depends on how much content you bought.
CASE ONGOING
Can O2 sign me up without permission?
Q My wife and I ‘share’ a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) phone for emergencies. I put in a new O2
SIM card and put £10 on it. It looks like O2 has taken this money for something called a data Big Bundle, which I hadn’t agreed to, rather than for my emergency phone. Can O2 take my money like this?
John G Johnston
A No, it can’t take an unauthorised payment, but we think there may have been a mix-up with John’s accounts.
He and his wife recently upgraded their iPhone with O2 to a monthly subscription, leaving the older phone on PAYG. During this process it looks like a £10 data bundle that didn��
