Australia: Consumer protection measures under review - compliance with Australian Consumer Law

Background

Carriers and carriage service providers will, by now, have made a number of changes to their customer contracting arrangements to comply with the Australian Consumer Law, as the unfair contract provisions became effective during 2010. Those laws apply to standard form customer contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2010 and to the terms of the then existing contracts that are renewed or varied after 1 July 2010.

Carriage service providers are also well versed in complying with the industry specific requirements of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code C628: 2007 ("Code"), an industry code published by Communications Alliance. As that Code was registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority ("ACMA") under Section 117 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 ("Act"), ACMA may direct any carriage service provider to whom that Code applies to comply with its provisions.

New Code

That Code is currently the subject of a significant review which has been undertaken over the last 4 months. A new enhanced draft of the Code ("New Code"), which is currently the subject of a pre release review by ACMA, will shortly be released for public comment. It is anticipated that the New Code will include a number of significant new obligations on carriage service providers, including in relation to offering spend management tools and Code compliance measures, to further enhance the industry's self regulated customer service initiatives. Truman Hoyle has been engaged by Communications Alliance to provide drafting services in relation to the New Code.

Public Enquiry

At the same time as the New Code has been prepared, ACMA has been undertaking a public enquiry into customer service issues in the telecommunications industry. It is anticipated that the outcome of that public enquiry may dovetail with ACMA's decision as to whether it will register the proposed New Code pursuant to the Act. ACMA is also undertaking a number of other compliance review measures in relation to obligations under the existing Code.

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Discussion Paper

Last week the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, issued a discussion paper examining the potential reform of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Scheme ("TIO Scheme"). The discussion paper poses a number of questions regarding the structure, operation and governance of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman ("TIO").

One of the responsibilities of the TIO is to act as arbiter of last resort for certain telecommunications consumer complaints. Carriage service providers are required to be members of the TIO Scheme, with the level of funding required to be paid by each carriage service provider being determined, in part, by the number of complaints the TIO deals with in relation to that carriage service provider.

This means that carriage service providers need to be vigilant in ensuring that they can comply with a number of new consumer protection measures which will be introduced during the course of 2011. This includes the New Code, which will impact on the manner in which they interact with the public generally.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.