I have now received this more encouraging email from David Stewart, Director of Investigations at Ofcom, in response to my complaint that the various Finarea telecoms brands (and in particular 18866) do not operate an Alternate Dispute Resolution Scheme.
If Finarea can only offer their service by unacceptably cutting corners then they must face the inevitable consequences. Also if they don't want people to complain about their lack of an ADR scheme to Ofcom then they shouldn't increase prices without telling us and they shouldn't ignore our emails.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Stewart [mailto:David.Stewart@ofcom.org.uk]
Sent: 22 September 2005 14:51
Cc: Matt Peacock; Ed Richards
Subject: RE: Failure to Take Action Against Finarea Over Non Membership of Otelo or other Alternate Disputes Resolution Procedures
Thank you for your note to Ed Richards about Finarea’s lack of membership of an ADR scheme.
I can report that Ofcom already has an active enforcement program in relation to membership of ADR schemes. On 16 August 2005 Ofcom opened an industry wide investigation into compliance with General Condition 14.4, which requires Communications Providers to implement and comply with an Ofcom-approved independent Dispute Resolution scheme for their domestic and small business customers. Our objective is to reduce the number of companies who are not members of ADR schemes, thereby ensuring that the schemes are available to consumers as widely as possible.
We know that more than 300 communications providers, including many of the largest operators, have already implemented an ADR through being a member of either Otelo or CISAS, meaning ADR is available to consumers in the majority of cases. Our current investigation is monitoring compliance with General Condition 14.4 across the industry and will target those communications providers who are not members of a Scheme.
Companies that don’t comply with the requirement for ADR membership could face serious consequences. Under section 94 of the Communications Act 2003 ("the Act"), Ofcom may issue a notification where it has reasonable grounds for believing there has been a contravention of a General Condition. If companies do not comply with the requirements of the notification, under Section 96 of the Act, Ofcom may impose a penalty of up to 10 per cent of turnover for failure to comply with such a notification within the time period specified.
In the light of your email, we will include Finarea in the companies being considered. The investigation is on-going so it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment further, although further information can be obtained by looking at the Ofcom website, under the Competition Bulletin:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/comp_bull_index/comp_bull_ocases/open_all/cw_8....
I hope this addresses your concern.
Regards,
David Stewart
:: David Stewart
Director of Investigations
020 7783 4173