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New rules on mobile sales
Wednesday September 16th 2009. Posted: 16:47
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Mobile companies found guilty of mis-selling face heavy fines under the new rules
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BT said it supports new Ofcom rules aimed at preventing mis-selling by mobile service providers and retailers that came into force today.
The new measures prohibit dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct, and organisations that breach the rules could be fined up to 10 per cent of relevant turnover. A BT spokesman said: “BT supports this activity by Ofcom as reduction in mis-selling activities builds consumer trust and benefits genuine industry players.” BT said it is keen to combat mis-selling in all forms for the benefit of consumers and industry. The spokesman said: “Business direct sales, BT local businesses, indirect partners and business customer service have been briefed accordingly, and information included within business mobiles pages on the BT website.” Mandatory Following a significant increase in the number of complaints about cashback schemes and other forms of mis-selling in the mobile market, the mobile network operators introduced a voluntary code of practice in July 2007 to tackle these issues. But Ofcom said this voluntary code did not lead to a significant reduction in complaints so in March it proposed new mandatory rules called a general condition. The regulator said that, since it proposed to introduce new rules, complaints have fallen from more than 600 to fewer than 200 per month. The new rules that came into effect today include, but are not limited to, requirements for mobile network operators to: - not mis-sell mobile phone services
- make sure the customer intends and is authorised to enter into a contract
- make sure consumers get the information they need at the point of sale
- make sure the terms and conditions of cash back deals offered by their retailers are not unduly restrictive
- carry out certain due diligence checks in respect of their retailers.
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Last updated:
18:55