In aiming to protect consumers in the telecommunications industry and to ensure the protection of consumer rights towards Service Providers, the TRA Board approved the Consumer Affairs Regulation  on June 19, 2009 which sets out a clear procedure for the submission of complaints to Service Providers and TRA. Although this regulation will become binding further to the review of the State of Council and upon publication in the Official Gazette, the TRA has been resolving complaints on a consistent basis in cooperation with the Consumer Protection Directorate (CPD) at the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET).

Consumers are submitting their complaints through the CPD hotline (1739), which are forwarded to the TRA as per the signed Memorandum of Understanding and the Authority is

resolving them successfully whilst coordinating with Service Providers who are cooperative in sending back their resolutions within a 48 hours timeframe.

The TRA has successfully resolved numerous complaints in the last period and consumers are extremely satisfied with the TRA’s intervention. A sample of resolved complaints revolve around:

• VAS providers refunding consumers for the lack of price announcements in the VAS services and giving their formal promises to abide by the Code of Practice for VAS
  
  
• Mobile Operators blocking spammers by coordinating with international operators
  
  
• Resolving of Billing complaints by all related Service Providers
  
  
• Service Providers attending QOS complaints
  
  
• Internet Service Providers resolving Broadband DSL installation delays and sending clarifications to their customers regarding the different offered packages

For more information on consumer rights in the telecommunications industry, the TRA has dedicated a special consumer section in the upper menu of its website, which includes a glossary and definitions of telecom terms, a directory of existing Lebanese Service Providers with their contacts, a step by step complaints resolution section, and numerous awareness dedicated sections relating to children protection, existing telecom services offers and tariffs along with actions undertaken at international levels in the interest of consumer protection.