Tech retailer Kogan has won its case against ispONE, following several weeks of tense argument in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Kogan’s counsel Norman O’Bryan told SmartCompany this morning the case was, “won comprehensively on every issue”.
The Victorian Supreme Court has said ispONE breached its obligations under the Master Wholesale Agreement to refusing to permit customers to to recharge their services, and must now pay all of Kogan’s costs.
The Court order mandates ispONE must be damages in respect of any losses, with that amount to be determined by the two parties. ispONE must also pay Kogan’s costs, including those relating to its abandoned counter-claim.
ispONE – which is a former entrant on the SmartCompany Smart50 – was contacted by SmartCompany this morning, but no response was available prior to publication.
In a statement, Kogan Mobile said the victory means customers can “rest assured that their services will not be unlawfully interfered with by the wholesaler”.
“Today is a win for Australians fed up with paying too much for their mobile phone access,” Kogan said in a statement.
“The migration to Kogan Mobile has been one of the largest in Australian telecommunications history, and with today’s result we can only see this migration gathering further momentum.”
The case began last month when Kogan took ispONE to court, alleging the company had breached the wholesale agreement because it was refusing to recharge the services of some customers. ispONE argued these customers were using too much data.
Although Kogan had advertised the prepaid mobile plans as providing 6GB of data, some users were judged by ispONE to be using too much in a short space of time, in breach of the company’s acceptable use policy.
ispONE responded to the case by alleging Kogan had engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct”.
The case heated up two weeks ago when Justice James Judd said he was troubled by the case due to the “distraction it causes to business management’s time and effort”.
Ruslan Kogan, founder of the eponymous business, said on Twitter that although the company has won, the case could harm the business’ reputation.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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