012 Smile.Communications ltd announces that it has been notified of a proposed class action lawsuit with respect to its international calling cards
PETACH TIKVA, Israel, May 4 2008 -- 012 Smile.Communications (NASDAQ Global market and TASE:SMLC), a growth-oriented provider of communication services in Israel, today announced that the company received a monetary claim and an application for permission to file it as a class action lawsuit against it, as well as against Netvision 013 Baraq Ltd.
The claim was filed in the Petach Tikva District Court by a citizen of the Philippines who is employed in Israel, and who claims to have used the international calling cards of two international telephony companies to call abroad. The purported plaintiff claims that the two international telephony companies improperly calculated the length of the international calls in whole-minutes units rather than in one-second units. The purported plaintiff also alleges that he and others were over charged due to a longer call duration calculation than the actual duration of the calls and that he and others were not informed about the per-minute calculation policy.The purported plaintiff seeks court permission to file the claim as a class action lawsuit by virtue of Israel's Class Actions Law on behalf of groups of persons that include anyone who purchased calling cards distributed by one of the two international telephony companies during the seven year period prior to filing the claim or during the term of the proceedings. The purported plaintiff has alleged that the damages caused to all members of the purported class by both companies total approximately NIS 158 million.
The company has not had an opportunity to review the claims with its counsel and is unable to provide any comments at this time.