Supreme Court will decide whether Judiciary can cancel telephone tariff adjus...

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The Virtual Plenary of the Federal Supreme Court recognized the existence of general repercussions in a matter that discusses the possibility of annulment, by the Judiciary, of a clause in a public service concession contract that authorizes readjustment of telephone tariffs in a percentage higher than the stipulated inflationary index .


The repercussion was recognized in an appeal by Telemar Norte Leste against the decision of the Federal Regional Court of the 5th Region that vetoed the increase, authorized by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), of more than 20% in telephone tariffs.

In the original instance, the Federal B2B Lead Public Ministry and Procon filed, in the Federal Court of Pernambuco, a public civil action against Anatel to question the formula adopted by the agency to increase the prices of services. They maintained that the concession contract limits the average increase to the General Price Index — Internal Availability (IGP-DI), from Fundação Getulio Vargas, for the respective period, which was 14.21%. However, Anatel authorized increases of 19.89% in residential subscriptions, 24.47% in non-residential subscriptions, and 24.46% in PABX subscriptions, according to the authors.

The MPF and Procon stated that the items that make up the tariff may, individually, be increased by percentages higher than the inflation for the period, measured by the IGP-DI, if the average increase does not exceed this index. They highlighted that the adjustment formula applied ended up being harmful to consumers, as it camouflaged an excessive increase in tariffs corresponding to the most used services. To respect the average established in the contract, they explained, the concessionaire compensated increases above the index in services with greater demand with smaller adjustments in services less used by users.



The judge of first instance accepted the claim and declared the authorized increase null and void, ordering Anatel and Telemar to recalculate the adjustments granted between 2000 and 2005, reducing the price adjustments of tariff items that exceeded this variation to the IGP-DI variation. , considered individually, and readjust the price adjustments made from January 2006 onwards. The TRF-5 maintained the sentence, alleging an offense to reasonableness and the lack of justification for implying the 9% margin in addition to the correction index.