In the ongoing dispute over 'commercial churn' the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched another salvo, issuing Telstra with a competition notice over its 'failure to implement an efficient and effective local call transfer process'.
The competition watchdog has been at loggerheads with Telstra over the issue of local calls since last December when it issued the first competition notice against the telecommunications giant. The ACCC is attempting to encourage competition in the local call market which Telstra currently dominates.
At the heart of the ACCC action is its belief that Telstra has not taken enough action to allow fair competition in the local call market.
'Commercial churn' is the description given to the process of transferring subscribers of one telecommunications company to another.
The competition notice, which is the fourth issued over this issue alleges that Telstra's continued conduct in this matter and the prices levied by Telstra for local call churn are a breach of Australian competition laws.
Competition notices are designed to assist towards developing a level playing field in the deregulated telecommunications market. Competition notices can carry heavy fines with them, threatening Telstra with the posilblity of losing millions of dollars if found to be at fault.
According to ACCC Chairman, Professor Alan Fels, the fourth notice was issued because Telstra failed to take action on the last three notices. Fels said that Telstra's failure to comply with the ACCC rulings could result in hefty fines.
"The legislation provides that Telstra may be liable for significant penalties if found to have breached the competition rule. The penalties may be up to $10 million for each of the offences alleged by the ACCC and $1 million per offence per day for each day that the conduct has continued while the competition notices have been in force," Fels stated.
