ACCC executes perfect hit on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone
After months of secret negotiations, Telstra, Optus & Voda have rolled over and ‘offered’ ACCC a court enforceable undertaking … equivalent to court injunctions … to stamp out false advertising in the broadband and telephony industry.
When legal advisers warn second and third tier telcos and ISPs about advertising content, the single most common retort is ‘Telstra gets away with it’ and ‘We saw an Optus ad like that’ and ‘But Voda says the same thing’.
It’s a pretty good argument. If the giants can do it, why can’t we ?
No mistake, this is the biggest telco-truth-in-advertising hit ever landed by the national regulator. Like all good commando raids, it seemed to come from nowhere. Only yesterday morning did rumours start to circulate that ‘something big’ was coming out of Canberra in the next 24 hours.
If Tiers 2, 3 & 4 don’t get their act together now, they can’t complain they’re being picked on. And ACCC has made sure that Telstra, Optus & Voda are motivated to keep their networks honest.
Senate Committee rubber stamps draft unfair contracts law
The Senate Standing Committee on Economics has received, and noted, strong submissions that part of the proposed new unfair contracts law can’t be right.
But so what ? The Committee majority finds no fault with the reasoning of law Professor Frank Zumbo, or the Consumer Action Law Centre … but it has still rubber stamped the Bill, virtually guaranteeing its passage into law.
And yes, the problem wording is the part we described as the Bill’s ‘bonkers bit’ back in June 2009. It’s disappointing that the Senate Committee system hasn’t been able to deliver a sensible outcome.
Optus toughens up mobile contract
Last December Optus incurred customer wrath, effectively torpedoing mobile access to cheap international VoIP services by charging them at international rates.
At the time, Optus insisted that:
International calls within the meaning of your Optus Mobile Standard Form of Agreement for all Timeless and Cap plans includes calls that re-route or divert to international numbers.
CSP Central asked Optus to tell us where the SFoA said that. We couldn’t be sure – because the document is a confused mish-mash – but as far as we could tell it said no such thing.
Apparently Optus didn’t feel too sure of its grounds, either. So it has bolted on a powerful, unbalanced new contract term that is sure to attract the interest of consumer regulators who have unfair contract terms legislation in their armory. Today, that’s only Victoria. On 1 January 2010, it will be every Australian State and Territory, and the ACCC.
Consumer Bill’s bonkers bit
There’s an element in the proposed national unfair contract terms law that:
- isn’t in the Productivity Commission report that recommended the new law
- isn’t in the Victorian law that is already in force in Victoria
- isn’t in the United Kingdom law that served as the model for Victoria’s law, and
- is bonkers.
It makes no sense. It’s bananas. And the Explanatory Memorandum that accompanies the Bill admits as much.
TPG still can’t get liability law right
Are some companies allergic to best practice legal compliance ? TPG has finally changed a seriously illegal misrepresentation about handset warranties in its Mobile Fair Go policy, after we highlighted the problem in December 2008 and again in May 2009.
That’s good, but not good enough. The really red hot misrepresentation has been removed from the document but it’s still likely to mislead consumers. It’s a good example of misleading by what you don’t say.
ACCC explains warranty laws … again
For some reason, many businesses just can’t get their minds around Australia’s warranty laws. ACCC has issued a new booklet explaining how it works, again.
The subject has been addressed any number of times by the Commission in the past. Despite that, serious breaches by organisations that should know better are commonplace. In recent months, CSP Central has pointed out breaches by:
Misrepresenting consumer rights is a criminal offence under the Trade Practices Act, so business and lawyers alike would be wise to study the new ACCC guide.
Test yourself: Who is a Consumer and what is a Consumer Contract ?
One of our recent posts raised an interesting question which many ISPs and telcos seem to overlook; Who is a ‘Consumer’ under the CommsAlliance Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code 628:2007 (the “TCP Code”) ?
The answer has some pretty serious consequences.
When the word ‘Consumer’ is used, one usually thinks mum, dad and the kids, right ? Well, its potentially more like mum, dad, the kids, the local milk bar operator, the local accountant, the local builder and the local solicitor, just to name a few under the TCP Code. So this puts a heap of contracts for telecommunications services into the contracts with ‘Consumers’ pile.
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Mythbuster: A CSP can’t cut service just because a payment is late
A surprising number of people, both service providers and consumers, believe that an overdue payment entitles a CSP to suspend or terminate service.
For consumer and small business contracts, that simply isn’t true. If there’s nothing more to it, the credit management rules in the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code preclude a CSP from immediate action.
Not much commentary required on this one … we’ll let the TCP Code speak for itself.
3 signs up for new Consumer Code
The Communications Alliance has announced: ‘Hutchison 3G Australia Pty Ltd (3 mobile) has become the first signatory to the new code designed to protect telecommunications consumers.’
They’re talking about the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code, a consolidation of six previous codes that had become topsy-turvy.
3 has shown leadership by voluntarily signing up to the TCP Code. But providers who don’t sign on the dotted line still can’t ignore it.
TIO – Tricks of the trade: Part 2
We learned how to approach and assess a TIO complaint in the first part of this series.
in this second part, we look at how to effectively respond to the TIO and achieve the best outcomes.
In the first part we determined who the complainant is and what the complaint is. Now it’s time to respond to that TIO complaint. The way you respond can have a significant impact upon the final outcome.