At its meeting today the Federal Council decided to bring the revised Law on Telecommunications and the decrees based on it into force on 1 April 2007. The revision primarily concerns unbundling of the last mile and consumer protection.

The new legal basis strengthens consumer protection in the area of value-added services (telephone numbers or SMS with higher charges). If a bill for value-added services is disputed, the telephone line can no longer be barred because of this. In addition, upper price limits will be introduced (CHF 100 as a basic charge, CHF 10 per minute, CHF 5 per minute for SMS messages, and a maximum of CHF 400 per call or subscription). The existing obligations regarding notification of prices will continue to apply. Also, providers of value-added services must be based in a country which allows legal actions against these providers by Swiss customers in Swiss courts. In addition, access by customers under 16 years of age to adult entertainment services will as far as possible be barred.

As a further consumer protection measure, an arbitration service for customer disputes will be set up and spam will in principle be banned. In the case of mobile calls, customers must be informed in advance whether they are calling a different network (e.g. by means of an audible signal).

Here is a link to the original document (in German Language)

Posted on March 9th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: Switzerland, all