Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009
Australian Government
Comment: Proposes to amend the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 to: require the universal service provider to supply standard telephone services and payphones as determined by the minister; and provide for the minister to establish minimum Customer Service Guarantee performance benchmarks; and Telecommunications Act 1997 to: require service providers to offer a priority assistance service; and establish an infringement notice regime to deal with breaches of civil penalty provisions.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009
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Position statement: Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill, 2010
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: In this position statement, ACCAN argues that the Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill is a step in the right direction, but that it does not go far enough. ACCAN recommends that the bill expand “the ACMA’s record keeping powers to allow it to obtain regular reports about carriers’ and service providers’ compliance with their obligations” and enable “the Minister to direct the ACMA to determine an industry standard.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Position statement: Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill, 2010
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Reconnecting the customer consultation paper, 2010
ACMA
Comment: In this 2010 inquiry, the ACMA seeks to (i) identify causes of systematic dissatisfaction with complaints-handling, (ii) identify best practices for complaints-handling and customer service, (iii) access how the regulatory structure helps or hurts adherence to best practice and (iv) to identify solutions to any systematic problems.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Reconnecting the customer consultation paper, 2010
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ACCAN submission to - reconnecting the customer
Australian Communications Action Network
Comment: ACCAN analyses the consumer experience of the telecommunications industry and identifies the root causes of poor performance with respect to customer service and complaint handling. ACCAN then proposes a new paradigm for consumer protection in the telecommunications industry based around meeting consumers expectations of their telecommunications providers.
READ THE FULL TEXT: ACCAN submission to - reconnecting the customer
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ACMA - reconnecting the customer submissions
Authors: Various
Comment: Submissions to the ACMA’s ‘Reconnecting the Customer’ inquiry from a number of key stakeholders.
READ THE FULL TEXT: ACMA - reconnecting the customer submissions
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Consumer protection in the communications industry: moving to best practice - issues paper (July 2008)
Galexia
Comment: This paper, commissioned by CHOICE and written by Galexia, “provides a brief overview of consumer concerns with the current co-regulatory consumer protection framework in the telecommunications sector in Australia.” The paper “examines the consumer protection framework in the telecommunications sector, compares this framework to co-regulation in other sectors, and makes recommendations for improvements.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Consumer protection in the communications industry: moving to best practice - issues paper (July 2008)
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Realising universal communications
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: As a contribution to a much-needed debate on the characteristics and requirements of universal communications, this paper sets out some key consumer issues and questions in the current Australian policy moment.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Realising universal communications
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A guaranteed service
Raiche, Holly.
Comment: In this paper, Holly Raiche explores universal service in the context of the NBN. To this end, she asks whether or not we still need a concept of universal service, how 'essential communications service' might be defined, whether it includes performance standards, who will provide it, who will fund it, and who can afford it.
READ THE FULL TEXT: A guaranteed service
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Informed consent
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: Highlights flaws in obtaining consumer consent in the Australian communications industry and calls for legislation and codes of conduct that set out consistent requirements for consent across the [communications] industry.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Informed consent
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ICAN research report 2010
Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network
Comment: In this 2010 report, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) develops an evidence base around the phenomenon of traders engaging in unfair and unconscionable ways in their dealings with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in northern Queensland. The report also identifies factors that increase these consumers vulnerability to unscrupulous traders.
READ THE FULL TEXT: ICAN research report 2010
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'Citizens' and the ACMA
Australian Communications and Media Authority
Comment: In this paper, ACMA focuses on its “relationship to citizens within the sphere of its regulatory responsibilities... In the course of considering the ACMA’s regulatory role, the paper explores general concepts relating to ‘the citizen’ in recent public policy discussions, as discussed in government and academic contexts. These include the UK experience and Australian Public Service initiatives.
READ THE FULL TEXT: 'Citizens' and the ACMA
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Self- and co-regulatory arrangements
Australian Communications and Media Authority
This paper by the Australian Communications and Media Authority argues that there are ten ‘optimal conditions’ that influence the effectiveness of co- and self-regulation. “The ACMA proposes to use the ‘optimal conditions’ framework as a high-level diagnostic tool to help inform the establishment of new industry self- or co-regulatory arrangements, and in the ongoing review of existing arrangements.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Self- and co-regulatory arrangements
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Review of Australia's consumer policy framework, vols 1 & 2, 2008
Productivity Commission
Comment: The Productivity Commission’s “broad ranging review of how the consumer policy framework might be improved, including through: promoting harmonisation and coordination of consumer policies across jurisdictions; revising or repealing regulation that is not of net benefit to the community; and making better use of self and non-regulatory approaches.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Review of Australia's consumer policy framework, vols 1 & 2, 2008
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Submission to consumer voices: sustaining advocacy research
Australian Communications Communication Action Network
Comment: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, argues for, among other things, longer comment periods during public inquiries so as to increase public participation.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to consumer voices: sustaining advocacy research
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Submission to draft Australian Consumer Law regulations
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: ACCAN suggests ways to strengthen the Australian Consumer Law so that it can better protect consumers. Suggestions include prohibiting businesses from asserting a right to payment for unsolicited goods when such right is unwarranted, providing consumers with contact information for advice or termination during cooling off periods and requiring that the front page of agreements include all and only important information about the agreement.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to draft Australian Consumer Law regulations
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Submission to mobile premium services code review
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: In this submission to the Mobile Premium Services Review, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) argues that the Mobile Premium Services Code must be revised, as, among other things, youth and vulnerable consumers remain at risk, code monitoring has been insufficient and complaint resolution remains problematic.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to mobile premium services code review
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Submission to premium SMS/MMS barring
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: In this submission in response the Consultation paper relating to the Telecommunications Service Provider (Mobile Premium Services) Determination 2009 (No. 1), the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network argues that to best protect consumers, mobile premium services should be opt-in.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to premium SMS/MMS barring
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Submission to telecommunications (emergency call service) determination 2009
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: In this submission, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network argues for “further amendment of the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2009, to ensure emergency access for users of the NRS’s Speak and Listen service, the NRS’s internet relay service, ACE’s video relay service and ACE’s web-based captioned telephony service.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to telecommunications (emergency call service) determination 2009
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Telecommunications service provider (mobile premium services) determination 2010 (No. 2)
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: Although the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) welcomes pro-consumer changes in the Telecommunications Service Provider (Mobile Premium Services) Determination 2010 (No.2), in this submission ACCAN argues that consumer protection with respect to SMS/MMS can be further enhanced.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Telecommunications service provider (mobile premium services) determination 2010 (No. 2)
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Submission to Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill (No. 2) 2010
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
Comment: In this submission on the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill (No. 2) 2010, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network argues for the “introduction of a prohibition on unfair conduct, a reform which we believe is long overdue, would be one step in providing comprehensive, future-looking consumer protection.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill (No. 2) 2010
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Submission to consumer voices: sustaining advocacy and research in Australia's new consumer policy framework
Consumers’ Federation of Australia
Comment: In this response to an issues paper entitled, ‘Consumer voices: Sustaining advocacy and research in Australia's new policy framework, the Consumers’ Federation of Australia, among other things, proposes ways to support consumer policy-focused research.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to consumer voices: sustaining advocacy and research in Australia's new consumer policy framework
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Submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry on consumer policy
Consumers' Federation of Australia
Comment: In the Consumers’ Federation of Australia’s (CFA) submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry on Consumer Policy, the CFA (i) suggests changes that would allow for more adequate and informed consumer participation in consultations and (ii) outlines ways improve consumer representation in the public sphere.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry on consumer policy
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Europa - proposed consumer rights directive
European Commission
Comment: The European Commission (EC) proposal for a Directive on Human Rights “updates and modernises existing consumer rights, bringing them in line with technological change … and strengthening provisions in the key areas where consumers have experienced problems in recent years.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Europa - proposed consumer rights directive
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Europa - frequently asked questions on the proposed consumer rights directive
European Commission
Comment: This compilation of frequently asked questions addresses motivation and changes in the European Commission’s proposed consumer rights directive.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Europa - frequently asked questions on the proposed consumer rights directive
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FCC - In the matters of empowering consumers to avoid bill shock & consumer information disclosure
Federal Communications Commission
Comment: In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, [the FCC] propose[s] rules that would require mobile service providers to provide usage alerts and information that will assist consumers in avoiding unexpected charges on their bills.” The motivation for this is that survey data “indicates that many mobile consumers experience sudden, unexpected increases in their monthly bills that are not caused by intentional changes in their service plans.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: FCC - In the matters of empowering consumers to avoid bill shock & consumer information disclosure
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Americans' perspectives on early termination fees and bill shock
Federal Communications Commission
Comment: The Federal Communications Commission’s “survey of American consumers of broadband and cell phone service finds that one in six cell phone users has experienced “bill shock” (i.e., a sudden increase in their monthly bill when they have not changed their service plan). Among those who have experienced bill shock, few were alerted by carriers that it was coming – before or after the bill arrived.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Americans' perspectives on early termination fees and bill shock
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What does behavioural economics mean for competition policy?
Office of Fair Trading
Comment: In this paper the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) looks at whether behavioural economics, which imports insights from psychology to the field of economics, fundamentally changes competition policy. The OFT ultimately concludes both that previous economic understandings are still valid and that behavioural economics offers “valid and valuable insights.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: What does behavioural economics mean for competition policy?
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Interactions between competition and consumer policy
Mark Armstrong
Comment: In this paper funded by the U.K. Office of Fair Trading, the author examines the interaction of competition law and consumer law. In the end, the author concludes that “in most competitive markets, firms succeed by giving consumers what consumers want to buy, and there is little need to provide customer protection beyond what firms themselves supply.”
READ THE FULL TEXT: Interactions between competition and consumer policy
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Ofcom | How people assess online content and services
DUCKFoOT Research, Ltd.
Comment: In this Ofcom-funded research, the authors “examine how people assess the veracity, trustworthiness, independence and balance of online content and services.” Further, the paper explores “how perceptions about the presence or absence of online regulation may underpin or influence peoples online behaviour.” This research provides insight into where consumer protection regulation may be required.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Ofcom | How people assess online content and services
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Wireless consumer protection: who decides?
Barbara S. Esbin
Comment: This article examines whether or not Early Termination Fees (ETFs) should be permissible in mobile phone contracts. The other concludes that they should be allowed and that legislators should defer to the FCC and light-touch regulation to sort out the consumer problems related to ETFs.
READ THE FULL TEXT: Wireless consumer protection: who decides?
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What do policy-makers need from behavioural economics?
Amelia Fletcher
Comment: In this speech, the Chief Economist at the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading discusses consumer protection law in light of behavioural economics. She discusses a number of topics, included whether consumer protection regulation can prevent consumers from learning to protect themselves, and whether tick boxes on purchase forms should be opt-in or opt-out.
READ THE FULL TEXT: What do policy-makers need from behavioural economics?
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OFT - Assessing the effectiveness of potential remedies in consumer markets
ESRC Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia
Comment: In this report prepared for the U.K. Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the authors look at ways “policymakers can intervene to facilitate and encourage consumers to take a more informed and active role.” To this end, the paper examines ways to help consumers (i) obtain information and make comparisons, (ii) make informed choices at the point of sale and (iii) switch suppliers.
READ THE FULL TEXT: OFT - Assessing the effectiveness of potential remedies in consumer markets
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OFT - The economics of self-regulation in solving consumer quality issues
Office of Fair Trading
Comment: This discussion paper the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) focuses “on the role self-regulation can play in making markets work well for consumers.” The paper concludes that self-regulation can reduce consumer need to monitor quality by creating incentive for more accurate product quality signals. However, the paper also warns that divergent interests between consumers and self-regulatory schemes can undermine the process.
READ THE FULL TEXT: OFT - The economics of self-regulation in solving consumer quality issues
