Sell my mobile: New consumer protection code implemented in Australia

14/07/2012

Telecommunications will force companies to overhaul their marketing, billing and internal complaints within six weeks as part of an accepted new consumer protection code.

This new code will make minimum standards of customer service enforceable via the courts for the first time. It is supposedly being introduced to end the "confuseopoly" in the retail mobile phone market.

An industry-funded body called Communications Compliance will now monitor companies and refer breaches to the regulator.

Following around 200,000 complaints over the last 12 months and findings from the ACMA's Reconnecting the Customer report last year, it was decided that changes were needed to combat so-called bill shock.

At the time of the report, the ACMA acknowledged that bill shock was a cause of customer dissatisfaction and poor consumer care.

"The code is a unique and ground-breaking document by world standards, bringing together best practice protections at all of the touch points in the TELCO customer lifecycle," ACMA chairman Chris Chapman commented.

Posted by Simon Thomas

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