On June 7, 2023, the Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal of VF Ukraine PJSC against the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee regarding a fine of 1.76 million UAH ($50 thousand) for false information in advertising.
In 2021, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine recognized as a violation of the law “On protection against unfair competition”, the distribution by mobile operator Vodafone in advertising of its own actions “Get money in a smartphone. Buy a promotional smartphone and get UAH 100 for a bonus account”, “Buy a smartphone – get up to UAH 1000 for 4G Internet”, “Cashback up to UAH 1000 for communication to all smartphones” and “Buy a smartphone – get a discount of up to UAH 1000 for 4G Internet” of misleading information, by informing an unspecified circle of persons of false information about charging subscribers a discount/cashback in the form of money and incomplete and inaccurate information, as a result of concealment of certain facts.
In particular, the operator did not provide information about automatic deductions of bonus funds for the subscription fee and other additional services, according to the selected tariff plan, and did not warn about the obligation to connect to separately defined tariff plans to activate promotions: “Gifts for loved ones”, “Cashback for smartphones “, “Powerful smartphone from Vodafone”, during which statements were spread:
“Buy a smartphone – get up to UAH 1,000 for 4G Internet”,
“Cashback up to UAH 1,000 for calls to all smartphones”,
“Buy a smartphone – get a discount of up to UAH 1,000 on 4G Internet.”
Also, the operator did not warn about the ban on changing tariff plans. Such actions of the company could influence the intentions of a certain circle of people to purchase the goods and services of VF Ukraine PJSC.