IN THE NEWS: Billboard man defeats corporate giant

Many South African consumers frustrated by their cellular service providers no doubt appreciated the David and Goliath battle that played out this month between a fed-up consumer and Cell C. The cellular giant brought an urgent application to attempt to force the consumer to take down a large billboard next to a prominent shopping mall bearing the Cell C logo and the words “The most useless service provider in SA – Cell C Sandton City.” Apparently Cell C bit off more than they could chew and their court proceedings were dismissed with costs. Recent reports suggest that Cell C may not be a gracious loser and apparently the unlicensed billboard has been reported to the local government, who have indicated that they will be taking it down.

This saga is interesting not only from a PR point of view, where many will probably regard Cell C’s tactics as wholly inappropriate and heavy-handed, but also from a legal point of view. This is because there is established case law about situations just such as this one, where consumers have in the past effectively used a supplier’s trademarks against them as a form of protest for horrendous service. In fact, as recently as 2004 the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected a move by a large motor vehicle manufacturer to quash a disgruntled consumer’s very public twisting of one of their marketing slogans to give expression to his disquiet. One therefore has to wonder whether Cell C did their research before resorting to legal proceedings. Hopefully this case will caution large corporates to treat their clients with more dignity and to attempt to resolve grievances in a professional, customer service oriented manner, rather than lashing out through the courts.

#CellC #billboard #consumer #poorservice #defamation #HighCourt #protest