By determination of 19 May 2011, ANACOM has decided that all commercial practises which lead in any way the consumer to believe that a paid service should be subscribed in order to continue receiving free and unrestricted access television programme services, namely RTP1, RTP2, SIC and TVI, as well as RTP Açores and RTP Madeira in the respective Autonomous Regions, are prohibited.
This position has been taken after doorstep-selling situations and telephone calls were brought to public attention, in which, given the inevitable analogue switch-off, the subscription of a paid service was presented as the only solution to continue watching TV, clearly an unfair commercial practise pursuant to article 5, paragraph 1, of Decree-Law number 57/2008, of 26 March.
Bearing in mind that the switchover to digital TV is inevitable, according to the phased time and geographic arrangements approved and disclosed by ANACOM, it is likely that electronic communications companies or their agents adopt these conducts, which must be urgently prevented.
ANACOM thus takes the view that the conditions have been fulfilled for immediately imposing an ex-ante prohibition of unfair commercial practices, as a precautionary measure.
This prohibition is addressed to electronic communications companies providing television signal distribution services, as well as to agents advertising or marketing such services.
ANACOM has taken the initiative to publish a notice disclosing this decision in two national written media: Jornal de Notícias and Correio da Manhã.
Consult:
- Ex-ante prohibition of unfair commercial practices within the DTT transition process https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1085830
Consult press release:
- ANACOM prohibits pay-TV operators from engaging in unfair commercial practises https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1085838
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Digital television https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=2963
