ACA bares teeth to telco sector - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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ACA bares teeth to telco sector

By Andrew Colley, 0
December 06, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/ACA-bares-teeth-to-telco-sector/0,130061791,120270470,00.htm

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) has sent a warning to the Telecommunications industry that voluntary codes of practice have as a much bite as they do bark.

The ACA has issued its first formal direction to comply with customer prices, terms and conditions code of conduct generated by the telecommunications sector.

The ACA has taken exception to the advertising practices of Internet provider Just Internet. Just Internet offered consumers Internet service for under AU$10 per month. The ACA claims the company mislead consumers, failing to make it clear that the offer was conditioned on the customers preselecting Just Internet for timed long-distance calls for a period of 12 months.

Since October the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has received over 600 complaints concerning Just Internet's offer.

John Neil, ACA Executive Manager Consumer Affairs indicated that it was unusual for the regulator to resort to legal measures when dealing with telcos and that the regulator didn't take the decision to do so in Just Internet's case lightly.

"We don't jump into legal action as our fist recourse, fundamentally it's a self-regulatory framework based on voluntary codes," said Neil.

Neil said that provisions in the Telecommunications Act 1997 give the ACA a fall-back position if traders do not comply with codes voluntarily. If a trader fails to follow directions to comply with the code the ACA can ask the Federal Court to impose financial penalties on it.

"In effect by directing compliance we make the code mandatory for that company," he said.

The ACA also said it is currently looking at an issue in relation to one of Telstra's mobile service offerings.