The Supreme Court Very dict against MTN

ANENE v. MTN (Nig) .COMM.PLC (2025) 16 NWLR ( pt 2010 ) 1 Facts of the Case : Mr Anene, a customer of MTN, had his airtime frequently deducted over a period of time for indeterminable reasons. On 18th May 2014, while he was making contributions to a live radio program, his airtime was cut off by MTN. He found that there was no airtime in his phone line and could not purchase airtime on that day to re-connect as it was a Sunday. Thereafter, he realised that it was MTN that was responsible for this and that MTN had subjected him to deductions from his airtime for caller tunes service which he allegedly never subscribed to. Mr Anene wrote to MTN complaining of the deductions. After some correspondences, MTN wrote back to him stating that it had de-activated the caller tunes and then refunded him N700 airtime with an undertaking not to unlawfullyand illegally deduct his airtime again. However, after a while, MTN resumed the deductions for caller tunes service when he did not subscribe to it in spite of their claim of having deactivated the unsubscribed caller tunes. Consequently, Mr Anene instituted a suit against MTN at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja for a declaration that the uncountable deductions breached his quiet enjoyment of the airtime he paid for; an order restraining MTN from further deductions from his airtime as service charge for caller tunes; an order directing MTN to refund all deductions made from his “plaintiff’s airtime”; the sum of N50,000,000.00 as damages; and the sum of N1,000,000.00 as the cost of litigation. At the conclusion of trial, the trial court found in favour of Mr Anene and awarded him the sum of N5,000,000.00 as General damages for the disruption of the quiet enjoyment of his airtime and the consequent hardship and discomfort which he was subjected through MTN’s unholy deductions. The court also awarded him cost in the sum of N500, 000.00. Dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, MTN appealed to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal held that the trial court was right in its decision. However, it held that the quantum of general damages was excessive and that the whole surrounding circumstances did not justify the quantum of damages awarded by the trial Court. Consequently, it reviewed downwards the award of general damages to N400,000.00. It also held the cost of litigation was not particularized and assessed it to be N100,000.00. Aggrieved, Mr Anene appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court allowing the Appeal, set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal and upheld the Decision of the trial Court by awarding N5,000,000.00 Naira as Damages and 500,000 as cost of litigation with an additional N3,000,000.00 as Cost of Appeal and order MTN to pay a total sum of 8.5M for Consumer right Violation. This is indeed a strong precedent for consumer rights protection under our Law.