Slingshot fined $250,000 over dodgy transfers

Photo / APN

Internet and phone company Slingshot has been fined $250,000 after it admitted transferring competitors' customers to its business without authority.

In a case brought by the Commerce Commission, the company pleaded guilty to 50 charges under the Fair Trading Act in the Auckland District Court this afternoon.

The company has admitted it transferred 27 customers to it without their authority.

The charges related to those transfers, as well as mispresentations to the customers involved.

The customers affected were contacted between 2009 and 2011 by telemarketing company Power Marketing, who is also facing allegations from the commission.

In sentencing Slingshot to pay the $250,000 fine, Judge Russell Collins today said the actions of the company had a "real and disturbing impact on customers in the market place"