Kurth: “Agency is a point of contact for the consumer” The German Federal Network Agency has now received its one hundred thousandth written complaint from a consumer about number misuse. “This shows that the Agency has established itself in the public awareness as a point of contact for questions and complaints on number misuse”, Matthias Kurth, Agency President, declared.

The Agency has been in charge of implementing the Premium Rate Services Act since 15 August 2003. It has now handled 100,000 written, as well as a large number of telephone, queries and complaints from consumers about number misuse since that date.

Number misuse manifests itself in a variety of ways, eg infringements of the statutory duty to indicate the price of calls in the promotion of (0)900 premium rate numbers and to indicate the price before each particular premium rate service is used, use of diallers in the wrong number range, and phone spamming. If the Agency succeeds in clearing up cases as a result of studying consumers’ complaints and of making – sometimes extensive – investigations, it intervenes. The measures it takes (to be found at www.bundesnetzagentur.de) range from warnings about disconnection right up to prohibiting billing and collection. In all disputed cases the Agency has been able to defend its legal action. It has also opened administrative fines proceedings in some 170 cases. Whenever there were indications of a criminal offence it notified the public prosecutor, in whose hands responsibility for further action lay.

At international level, there are cooperation avenues for the prosecution of number misuse and the possibility of exchanging information with other regulatory authorities.

The aim of the Agency’s measures is to remedy the situation that led to the complaints in the first place. With regard to diallers, for instance, some 500 complaints were received in 2006 compared to a total of 21,000 the previous year. This success has been achieved mainly through the introduction of a standard approval window for diallers, which has brought about cost transparency.

Posted on December 30th, 2006 by lbraum
Filed under: Germany