Court upholds 50.6 mln penalty for Vodafone in wiretapping scandal

The Council of State on Monday upheld a decision to fine the Greek arm of the Vodafone mobile communications company 50.6 million euros over its role in a wiretapping scandal.

The firm was initially fined 76 million euros by the Communications Privacy Protection Authority (ADAE) in 2006 over its conduct in connection to an affair that led to 106 cell phones, including the prime minister’s, being tapped.

The illegal monitoring took place during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and afterward.

In 2010, the Council of State upheld Vodafone’s appeal against the original fine because ADAE’s board had met behind closed doors when it decided on the penalty.

The privacy watchdog issued a new fine in January 2013, which Vodafone paid while also filing a petition for its annulment.

The firm argued that a number of rules had been broken by ADAE when it issued the second fine of 50.6 million euros.

However, in an 80-page ruling, the plenary of Greece’s highest administrative court rejected the new appeal.