You find an item on your bill that you have never heard of. It is annoying. You feel you did everything right, and the operator is still taking money for something you never knowingly ordered.
The law gives you a clear way to dispute that amount. The operator must prove it has a legal ground for the charge.
When the charge is unauthorized
This problem usually takes one of three forms.
A service activated automatically without consent. A typical example is an extra data package, a premium SMS service, or phone insurance that appears on the bill without you actively ordering it. The regulator has previously investigated similar practice at one operator. Automatic activation of a paid service without the customer’s express consent may amount to an aggressive commercial practice. That conduct is prohibited by the Consumer Protection Act.
A contractual penalty or fee with no basis in the contract. If the operator charges a penalty or fee that has no clear basis in the contract or in the law, that is grounds for a complaint just as with an unordered service.
A change of terms without proper notice. The operator must notify you of a change to the contract or the terms and conditions at least one month before it takes effect. If the change is not exclusively beneficial for you and is not purely administrative, the operator must also tell you that you may terminate the contract free of charge. You then have one month from delivery of the notice to terminate. If the operator simply folds the change into the bill in silence, that is a problem in itself, regardless of the amount.
If the operator demands payment, it must be able to document the basis on which it is charging you for that service. If it does not document that, it has nothing to recover.
If you have already paid, you claim the money back as unjust enrichment. If you have not, it is a disputed claim that you do not have to pay.
How to file the complaint correctly
Billing complaints for telecommunications services are governed by Section 64 of the Electronic Communications Act, not by the general rules on complaints about goods. They therefore have their own rules and deadlines. They also differ from an energy bill complaint, where different deadlines apply and a different authority decides.
The same principles apply as with any other complaint: concrete facts, a clear demand, and provable sending.
What to include in the complaint:
- your identification details and the telephone number the bill relates to,
- the bill number and the amount you disagree with,
- the specific item you are disputing and why (for example, "I did not order service X and I did not use it"),
- what you are asking for, usually a refund of the disputed amount to your account.
Under the operator’s terms, the complaint can also be filed by phone. Written form (email, data mailbox, registered letter) is always the better choice. You can easily prove it if the operator later claims it received no complaint.
You must file a billing complaint without undue delay, no later than 2 months from the date the bill was delivered. If the operator does not send you bills (typically with prepaid cards), the same two-month period runs from the day the service was provided to you. After the deadline the right to complain expires, so do not delay filing.
Even after filing a complaint you must pay the billed amount, unless the operator decides in your favor before the due date. Filing a complaint does not itself postpone the payment obligation. In justified cases you may ask the Czech Telecommunication Office (Český telekomunikační úřad, CTU) to defer the due date. You need to use this option actively. It does not arise on its own.
How long the operator has to decide
By law the operator has one month from delivery of the complaint to resolve it. If the matter needs to be dealt with a foreign entity, for example roaming charges, the deadline extends to two months.
The operator must inform you of the outcome of the complaint in a provable manner, so that you have a record of what it told you and when. If it upholds the complaint as justified and the bill was to your detriment, it must refund the difference no later than one month from resolving the complaint.
What to do if the operator rejects the complaint or does not respond
If you disagree with how the complaint was handled, or the operator lets the deadline for handling it expire unused, you have the right to file an objection with the CTU under Section 129 of the Electronic Communications Act.
You have one month to file the objection from delivery of the complaint decision, or from the unused expiry of the deadline for handling it. The filing includes an administrative fee of 100 Kč. If you succeed, the operator pays the costs of the proceedings, so the fee comes back to you from the operator, not from the office. If you file through the ePortal electronic form, you get a 20% discount on the fee. The CTU has 90 days to decide a dispute opened on a consumer’s application, and 180 days in especially complex cases.
If you do not succeed at the CTU either, you still have the option to file an appeal (rozklad) against the decision, or to go to court. With the court route, expect costs on both sides. Consider it more for higher amounts or disputes that matter in principle.
Practical step-by-step procedure
- Go through the bill and mark the specific item you disagree with.
- Check whether the operator has a basis for this item in the contract, an addendum, or provable consent on your part.
- Write a written complaint with the bill number, a description of the disputed item, and a request for a refund.
- Send the complaint no later than 2 months from the date the bill was delivered and in the meantime pay the disputed amount, unless the operator decides in your favor earlier.
- Watch the one-month deadline for a decision (two months for foreign items such as roaming).
- If the complaint is rejected or the operator does not respond, file an objection with the CTU within 1 month.
- If the CTU does not decide in your favor either, consider an appeal or the court route according to the amount.
What to do next
A complaint stands a better chance when it names the disputed item precisely and rests on the two-month deadline in Section 64 of the Electronic Communications Act.
Legamik is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. In complex disputes we recommend consulting an attorney.