New rules on mobile contracts
Telecoms firms have signed a charter creating a more flexible relationship with customers
MOBILE phone firms have promised to make life easier for customers wanting to end contracts, start new ones without obligations or unlock their phones.
Commerce Minister Hervé Novelli has asked them to sign up to a list of “concrete measures” meant to simplify people’s relations with the firms. They are intended to be in place by next March at the latest.
The changes include:
• At present when you buy a mobile phone with an associated contract, the phone can only be used with the operator concerned for six months, otherwise you have to pay around e100 to “unlock” it and use it with a competitor’s SIM card. Under the new rules, it will be possible to unlock it free after three months.
• All firms will have to offer at least one package that has no minimum time period but is available with monthly direct debits, like other contracts, unlike buying pay-as-you-go credit.
• Anyone should be able to cancel a phone contract whenever they want by paying a percentage of the remaining full amount that would have been paid in the contract period. Under current legislation, you should be able to leave your operator after 12 months as long as you pay a quarter of the remaining amount you would have paid under the contract (eg. three months’ fees if you have a two-year contract). The new rules add that you can stop at any time before, as long as you pay in full up to the twelfth month and then a quarter of the remaining period.
• The use of the term “unlimited” for certain contracts will be regulated more (these contracts are typically not literally unlimited): if the term is used, it will need to be accompanied by an asterisk linking to fuller information.
Mr Novelli has held back from making these legal obligations, saying “a good agreement is better than a law that is badly applied or that people try to get around”.
Consumer bodies expressed disappointment and said the measures contained nothing ground-breaking. However industry watchdog Arcep said they were “a positive first step towards reinforcing consumer protection”.
