2024-02-15 21:07:04
The branch organization points out that the commission has already ruled on the case once
The Alliance of the Technological Industry (ATI), in which all telecoms in our country are members, has sent a letter to the Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP), in which it expresses its readiness to participate in negotiations on the case with an increase in fees for telecommunication services.
“The indexation of the prices of telecommunication services meets the provisions of the contracts with the users, the requirements of the applicable laws and the European practice”, it is written in the letter, with which “24 chasa” has.
The conditions are transparent and known in advance, as they are part of the individual contracts and general conditions that each user receives. The general terms and conditions are also publicly available on the operators’ websites, the operators’ organization states.
They are objective, as they are based on the official indices of the National Statistical Institute, measuring inflation, which in turn reflect objective economic processes and the growth of consumer prices. Data on the consumer price index are published in mid-January, which is also the reason why operators carry out the indexation in the February-March period, they explain.
According to the telecoms, the changes in charges are balanced and do not allow arbitrary and uncontrolled price increases, as is observed in relation to many other goods and services forming the consumer basket. “On the contrary – the clauses clearly define when and by how much the operators can change their prices,” the letter reads.
In the European Union, this is an increasingly used mechanism to compensate for inflation in order to develop connectivity and digitalisation.
Similar clauses are present in the contracts of operators from a number of EU countries. Their legitimacy has been confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union with the decision in case C-326/14, the letter states.
They are legal and have not been amended in the last 10 years. They were checked several times by the Criminal Code, which did not find any contradiction with the law, did not find them unequal and did not prohibit them. There are no objective grounds and no other changes in the circumstances to justify a change in the position of the KZP.
We draw attention to the fact that in the case of the first indexation announced by the operators in 2021, the CCP analyzed its legality, ruling only that the operators do not have the right to immediately apply the indices for two years, and confirmed the legality of the indexation in its remaining part. Moreover, in the framework of the subsequent judicial review, the court also did not reach conclusions about the unfairness of the indexation clauses,” the letter reads.
In it, the operators remind the commission that according to the Law on Consumer Protection, the CPC has the power to conduct negotiations with representatives of traders’ associations in certain industries or sectors of activity.
“The Alliance expresses its willingness to participate in such negotiations as a representative organization in the field of telecommunications,” concludes the letter.