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By Suzanna Kerridge, 1 September 2000 12:37

NEWS Former Onetel customers have taken the telco to court for breach of contract after the company cancelled its unlimited internet access service and billed users for connection time.
The disgruntled customers filed the case at the local court in Nanterre, France claiming Onetel had no right to modify the contract by charging an additional per minute charge on top of the monthly fee of FF149 (£15) affecting between 15,000 and 20,000 users. Onetel began its unmetered internet offering in May but withdrew it at the end of July, accusing customers of abusing the terms of the contract by giving their access code to friends - accumulating more than 24 hours of connection a day. The telco then billed customers an additional amount to cover the costs of connection. Olivier Iteanu, lawyer at the Association of the net surfers' mediator (ADIM) and representative of the users, accused Onetel of unilaterally modifying the contract without consultation with the users. In its own defence, Onetel lawyer Marion Barbier claimed the contract stated that to qualify for the unlimited access, users had to connect to the internet via Onetel or France Telecom's lines. If customers failed to do this then a connection fee would be incurred. Barbier said "certain net surfers did not observe these conditions." However, Iteanu said: "The consequences of the non-observance of this condition were not clearly indicated."