Executives at Vodafone will subsequent month meet parliamentarians amid rising scrutiny of its remedy of dozens of its retail franchisees, which a distinguished MP stated possessed “uncomfortable echoes of the Post Office [Horizon IT] scandal”.
The assembly, which MPs had been pursuing for a number of weeks, will come weeks after ministers indicated they had been ready to overview the authorized construction of franchise agreements in Britain.
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A bunch of 62 Vodafone retail franchisees introduced a Excessive Courtroom declare final 12 months, alleging that the corporate had “unjustly enriched” itself by chopping gross sales commissions paid to the small enterprise house owners who ran its shops in 2020.
The Guardian reported this week that a lot of these affected had dedicated suicide or tried to take their very own lives
In September, Vodafone started proposing monetary settlements to among the group of former franchisees.
Mr Tice, whose engagement on the difficulty was triggered by the plight of one in every of his constituents, stated in a press release on Thursday: “Vodafone’s behaviour in this case has uncomfortable echoes of the Post Office scandal, where a powerful organisation is avoiding accountability while ordinary people running our high streets are left to suffer.
“That’s utterly unacceptable.
“Vodafone must stop stonewalling, accept that serious failures in its franchising operation have caused real harm, and engage properly with Parliament to establish what went wrong and how this will be put right.
“I welcome the truth that a gathering is lastly going down, however it mustn’t have taken this lengthy.
He added: “This must now be a serious and transparent discussion.
“MPs want pressing solutions about Vodafone’s conduct and significant engagement in response to the deeply troubling tales that proceed to emerge.”
In a press release, Vodafone stated: “We have tried on multiple occasions to resolve this complex commercial dispute.
“We provided to make a major fee which we believed would guarantee no claimants had money owed related to their franchise.
“We were disappointed to learn that our financial offer was rejected by the company funding the claim, without having shared it with all claimants.
“We stay open to additional talks and are sorry if any franchisee had issue in working their enterprise.
“We continue to run a successful franchise business in the UK, with many current franchisees keen to take on more stores.”
