A Swedish non-profit has filed a class action lawsuit against Norway's Telenor, accusing it of endangering customers in Myanmar by sharing their data with the junta. The company said it had no real choice.

Telenor is facing a class action lawsuit in Norway over the actions of its subsidiary in Myanmar.

The case alleges that Telenor Myanmar passed phone data of more than 1,200 people to the country's military junta following the 2021 coup.

The company, which is 54% owned by Norway's government, has since withdrawn from Myanmar as internal conflict intensified in the aftermath of the removal of a more civilian-led government under Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi that temporarily ruled the troubled the country.

What Wrongdoing is Telenor Accused of?

The class action lawsuit, filed by a Swedish non-profit called the Justice and Accountability Initiative, alleges that the company endangered customers by passing information on to the military government.

Among other things, it alleges that the data led to the 2022 execution of a prominent government opponent and lawmaker, Phyo Zeya Thaw, and the arrest and jailing of civil society activist Aung Thu.

The lawsuit claims Telenor is liable for Euro 9,000 (roughly USD 10,500) ​per customer whose data was shared.

"If successful, this case would be the first ever to hold a telecoms company to account for not sufficiently protecting user data from ​access by an authoritarian regime," said Beini Ye, legal counsel at the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is supporting ​the case.

How Did the Company Respond?

Telenor was first informed that the lawsuit was being prepared last October, and said at the time that it had been "legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities."

It said in a statement to news agencies Reuters and AFP on Wednesday that non-compliance could have led to "imprisonment, torture or the death penalty," for its subsidiary's local employees.

"Telenor Myanmar was operating on the ground in a war zone," it said. "Telenor Myanmar had no real options. We could not play Russian roulette with the lives of our employees."

The company said that it would be "terrible if data from Telenor had been misused by the authorities," but it also said that Myanmar's junta bore sole responsibility for its treatment of its citizens and "neither Telenor nor any other civilian organization has that responsibility."

When Was Telenor Active in Myanmar?

Telenor won a tender process in 2013, soon after the military agreed to the formation of a semi-democratic political system. It started operating in Myanmar in 2014 and had more than 18 million customers by 2021.

But in January 2021, soon after elections, the still-influential military reclaimed total control in a coup, with civil unrest and state repression following soon after.

In June of 2021, with the conflict intensifying, Telenor announced its intentions to sell its subsidiary; it completed its exit by March 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the release of data while Telenor was still in control led to abuses before and after the Norwegian company's exit.

Aung Thu, a civil society activist arrested in September 2021, told Reuters his information was among the data allegedly shared. "I am hoping for justice, not just for myself, but for all the people of Myanmar," he said.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, a popular hip hop singer who was a lawmaker in the civilian government, was hanged in 2022 along with three other activists accused of helping carry out acts of terrorism. The lawsuit alleges that Telenor had shared his phone data earlier.

"It is not just a wife losing her husband," his wife Tha Zin said in a statement. "It is also a loss to democracy."