The High Court judge Chacha Mwita has granted millions of Safaricom subscribers permission to join a class action suit filed by two senior counsels, Wilfred Nderitu and Charles Kanjama against the telco over a clause in the SIM card registration rules that allows the firm to collect bank details of mobile phone users.
According to clause 3.2.1 in the data privacy statement, which subscribers filled as part of the re-registration process, grants Safaricom powers to collect and store information including credit or debit card information, information on bank account numbers, Swift codes or other banking information.
The High Court judge allowed the two senior counsels to invite other subscribers to the class action suit through the press for Safaricom to delete the clause.
“I direct the lawyers to publish a notice in a national daily newspaper, inviting Kenyans wishing to join the suit,” said Chacha
Even though Safaricom has opposed the class action suit, the clause appears in a 58-page document that has the terms and conditions attached to last year’s update of SIM card registrations.
The two lawyers concur that Safaricom’s dominance of the Kenyan mobile market triggered subscriber’s decision not to decline the SIM card registration rules hence submit to the clause as it left them with no other option.
Safaricom’s market share stood at 66 percent in September while that of rivals Airtel and Telkom Kenya stood at 26.3 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.
Nderitu said that the stringent mechanisms and crafty ways of collecting data without assurance of data security are precipitated by the thought that its clients have no option but to opt-in for them to continue enjoying the products and services that it offers.
One or more persons file a class action lawsuit in the US-style, and if they are successful, all the wronged customers stand to get compensation.
Following a customer’s lawsuit against the company and the sector regulator Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) over SIM Swap fraud, in which con artists stole millions of shillings from the bank accounts of mobile phone subscribers, this is the second class action lawsuit brought against Safaricom and the CA.
Abdi Zeila, a businessman, claims that the CA breached its regulatory obligations by failing to verify that Safaricom was offering services that were protected from scammers as the matter is now in court.
Nderitu claims that Clause 3.2.1 stated that whenever he used mobile banking services through the telecom’s operator, Safaricom would gather his personal financial information with his knowledge and agreement.
Because there is a genuine risk that their rights would be violated, resulting in injury that cannot be made up for by monetary damages, Nderitu and Kanjama are asking the court to issue a provisional order prohibiting Safaricom from implementing the data privacy statement.
Additionally, Justice Mwita ordered Safaricom and the CA to submit its defense in the class action lawsuit involving the bank details within seven days.
The case will be mentioned on March 14, 2023.