Historically, the 17th of June has been a moderately unremarkable day. In 1837, Charles Goodyear obtained his first rubber patent and 1775 saw the battle of Bunker Hill. In addition, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York in 1885 and Iceland became a republic in 1944. These examples are already scraping the barrel.
2022 may be different for those reading this article though. On the 17th June this year, the another wave of significant changes to the General Conditions of Entitlement (GCs) will come into effect – the second implementation date of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). This is a piece of European legislation that the UK is required to honour, as it came into force just before the end of the Brexit transition period.
This is a very important law that providers that sell communications services in the UK will need to be aware of and pay close attention to. More specifically, there are three aspects of the legislation that must be considered.
Contract Modifications
Ofcom will be amending the associated guidance to give effect to the language of the EECC. In fact, similar requirements to that of the EECC were dismissed by Ofcom in 2013 on the grounds of fairness and proportionality. The difference this time is that the UK is bound by its international law obligations to implement this aspect of the EECC, regardless of its merits, or lack thereof.
From this date, the penalty-free exit from a contract that end users have been able to enjoy because of ‘materially detrimental’ changes (which Ofcom decided in 2013 all changes to the core subscription price met this threshold) will be extended to any contractual change that is not administrative or purely to the benefit of providers’ customers.
The provision stating that “an additional service offered by a third-party under separate terms and conditions that apply between the customer and the third-party” excludes the service charge element of non-geographic calls. However, this is about the only meaningful exception. For instance, bundles, international calls, and ancillary services all come into scope for all subscribers, not just consumers and small enterprises.
The guidance provides a test that can be passed. Providers must meet the below requirements:
- Maintaining full transparency and prominence about price changes in a contract
- Informing customers about the different amounts they may need to pay
- Having reasonable justifications on practical grounds
Service providers should also pay attention to any clauses in their contracts which allow them to unilaterally change or remove features in their products. These actions may also give rise to problems under the new GC 1.14.
Contract Information and Summary
Remember the last time you bought a financial product like insurance, a mortgage or investment? Did you receive a ‘key facts’-type document? That is coming to telecommunications this summer – specifically, to consumer agreements and small businesses where the latter has not explicitly waived their right to receive such information.
The GC in question specifies the precise headings, content, sequence, length, minimum font size and other characteristics. The information required ranges from specifics on pricing, installation date, service levels, jitter, latency, packet loss (if you are an ISP), service level credits and more.
It automatically forms part of providers’ contracts, and customers must be given time to understand it prior to signing up – noting some exceptional cases, such as pre-pay SIM cards.
For simple, commoditised, residential products, this is merely another step in the sales process which is unlikely to significantly trouble the larger players. For business providers, especially those with complex bundles of voice, mobile and data services, sourced from multiple wholesalers, it could become a choice between the administrative headache and explaining to a prospect why you are asking them to sign a waiver of their rights.
The Comms Council UK Wiki, which is exclusively available to members, has my detailed guidance on the full contract summary and information requirements.
Video Relay
The final big change is the new GC C5.11. This places a requirement on providers of internet access services and traditional number-based telephony to provide access to a video-relay service so that British Sign Language users can contact the Emergency Services.
Ofcom approved Scotland-based vendor Sign Language Interactions earlier this year. At the time of going to press, BT was proposing to wholesale compliance by wrapping it up in the existing costs to make a voice call to 999/112.
While there are some finer details to go through in that respect, it does appear that the hundreds of independent UK networks, and 1000+ independent service providers will not need to contract with the vendor all separately. Readers with a contractual relationship with BT Wholesale can access their General Briefings on the subject, whereas others should speak to their chosen network partners for more information.
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