During the third session entitled ‘Consumer protection – meeting the expectations of the connected’, Ms. Rosalind Stevens presented a discussion paper where she mentioned that regulators’ responsibility in improving consumer protection revolves around many tasks; mainly ensuring:
- Efficient and reliable networks
- Accessibility and affordability
- Increased competition and innovation
- Well informed and protected consumers
- Trust and quality
Consumers should be empowered and well informed in order to trust the information provided by their suppliers to be truthful, accurate and up to date. This can be achieved by effective regulations especially ones related to Quality of Service.
Operators must ensure there is a fair and transparent process and should handle complaints in the first instance received in order to make sure remedies are enforced to avoid litigation or arbitration.
Trust and security is also a major challenge with increased connectivity and open access. Regulators can help in limiting inappropriate and harmful content through lobbying and social networking as well as imposing measures against spamming for example.
Following Ms. Stevens presentation, Mr. C. Cheah, Deputy Chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), requested from each panelist to give a briefing on the effective measures taken by their regulators to protect consumers.
In Lebanon, as explained by Mrs. Mahassen Ajam, Commissioner and Board Member at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the TRA has drafted 2 regulations as measures in terms of consumer protection: the Consumer Affairs Regulation and the Code of Practice for Value Added Services.
Other Regulators explained that they have put in place appropriate procedures for complaints handling, for example India having a dedicated hotline to handle consumer complaints, while others explained that complaints are increasing with the introduction of complex and advanced services.
In conclusion, it was agreed that regulators must promote consumer’s involvement and awareness by ensuring the availability of accurate and reliable information in order to make the best available choices. It is therefore competition that will drive operators to offer the needed environment to retain their customers and avoid them switching to other operators.