Israeli cell phone company to compensate customer who contracted cancer

Israeli cell phone company to compensate customer who contracted cancer

Partner Communications, which operates in Israel under the Orange brand name, has reached a settlement with a customer who claims he contracted cancer after using one of their devices.

The customer, who is in his 50s, sued Partner in May, claiming that intensive use of the device resulted in an aggressive lymphoma near his left ear. Partner agreed to pay NIS 400,000 in an out-of-court compromise settlement.

Partner’s settlement is a rare act. The company says they opted to pay the customer as a humanitarian gesture, saying in a statement, “The company is very meticulous about adhering to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, the Health Ministry, the Communications Ministry and all the relevant bodies. No scientific or medical basis was found to the claim and it was rejected by the court. Beyond the letter of the law, in light of [the man's] personal story, the company decided on an exceptional humanitarian gesture. We wish him good health.”

Partner’s move in the settlement is rare and could set a precedent for further lawsuits. Photo by Dan Keinan.

Regardless of their statement, the customer’s lawsuit included a medical opinion linking mobile phone use and his disease, which raises questions about Partner. Was it concerned the opinion would be legally validated if the case when to court? Was it worried about a precedent? Did it prefer to sign the compromise agreement to save face in the media?

This particular settlement by Partner is liable to have an effect on cell phone companies and open the floodgates to a barrage of individual and class-action lawsuits, providing plenty of work for lawyers specializing in the field. Following a ruling in the United States requiring tobacco companies to pay damages for cancer patients who had smoked, lawsuits poured in and the value of tobacco companies plummeted as a result.

Extract only. Full article at: http://www.haaretz.com/business/israeli-cell-phone-company-to-compensate-customer-who-contracted-cancer.premium-1.506877