Telenor, Norway's state-owned telecommunications company, is facing a class-action lawsuit filed in Norway by the Justice and Accountability Initiative. The lawsuit represents over 1,200 Myanmar customers and alleges that Telenor's subsidiary in Myanmar shared call logs and location data with the military junta following the 2021 coup. This data sharing is claimed to have exposed political opponents to repression, resulting in at least one prominent activist's execution and others facing prosecution. The lawsuit seeks 9,000 euros ($10,524) per customer whose data was shared, potentially making it the first case to hold a telecoms company accountable in this manner.
Documents obtained by NRK and shared with The Guardian indicate that Telenor complied with 96% of the 153 data requests it received. One such request in September 2021 listed activist Aung Thu, who was already imprisoned at the time. Internal memos from Telenor, seen by The Observer, show that the company's local sustainability team repeatedly assessed that disclosing such information would likely lead to arrest, recommending denial or customer notification. However, Telenor, with approval from its Oslo headquarters, shared data for 1,253 numbers in the nine months before its exit from Myanmar, without notifying customers.
Telenor's defense states that refusing military requests could have led to imprisonment, torture, or death for its employees, and that martial law prohibited customer notification. Despite assessing the risk of arrests, the company did not refuse any requests. An independent expert body concluded that Telenor's prioritization of employee safety over customer data and its due diligence during its exit from Myanmar did not align with OECD guidelines. The company sold its Myanmar business for $105 million after investing 5.3 billion Norwegian krona (approximately $535.5 million).
