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The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
announced today that it has agreed to register a revised
Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code, effective 1
September 2012.
The new TCP Code was prepared and submitted for registration by
the Australian telecommunications industry body, Communications
Alliance, earlier this year to replace the current version of the
Code which was registered by the ACMA in September 2007.
The ACMA's registration of the new TCP Code follows a review
of the current Code, the release of the ACMA's recommendations
from its Reconnecting the Customer inquiry into the industry and
the ACMA issuing a notice to Communications Alliance requesting
that it address regulatory deficiencies identified in the
Reconnecting the Customer public inquiry report and strengthen the
existing self-regulated consumer protections within five
months.
Before the Code was submitted to the ACMA for registration, the
draft Code was substantially amended following criticism by the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). ACCAN
publicly refused to support the new Code when it was submitted for
registration, arguing in support of reducing self-regulation of the
telecommunications industry in favour of direct regulation by the
ACMA.
ACCAN has today called for the ACMA to be given greater
enforcement powers if it finds that a provider has breached the new
Code. Currently, the ACMA can issue a direction to comply with the
Code but it does not have the power to directly fine or otherwise
impose penalties upon providers.
Key features of the new TCP Code
From 1 September this year, the revised TCP Code will clarify
some of the obligations currently by the existing Code, scrap the
existing TCP Industry Guideline as well as the Code Administration
and Compliance Scheme, and impose a number of new obligations on
the industry.
The major changes under the revised Code include:
a new requirement for retailers to be able to provide consumers
with a summary of offer prior to sale
prohibitions on certain content in advertising, eg use of the
term "unlimited" to describe usage entitlements where
ordinary usage within Australia is not genuinely unlimited and not
subject to exclusions, and use of the terms "no
exceptions", "no exclusions" or "no
catches" to describe an offer where there are not genuinely no
exceptions. These restrictions have been inserted along with other
restrictions on advertising content which are similar to the
restrictions imposed under the terms of the undertaking given to
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) by
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia under section 87B
of the former Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) in 2009
a new requirement to provide unit pricing information in
certain advertising mediums
a prohibition on using the term "cap" to describe new
offers unless they are "hard-capped" offers
a shortening of the allowable delay for back-billing,
requirements to provide additional content on bills and to provide
historic billing information free of charge for up to 24 months
after a bill was first issued
compulsory provision of usage information to customers for
calls, SMS and data to allow greater spend management and reduce
"bill shock"
new complaint handling requirements, including shorter
complaint resolution timeframes, a requirement to advise customers
of complaint outcomes and a requirement to issue each customer who
complains with a unique reference number to enable them to track
the progress of their complaint
the introduction of a new independent body to be called
"Communications Compliance" to monitor TCP Code
compliance with the power to refer non-compliance to the ACMA.
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.
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