ANACOM has decided to impose a fine of EUR 2.460 million on MEO for breaching the rules on the termination of contracts at the initiative of subscribers, as set out in ANACOM’s decision of 9 March 2012 on Procedures required for the termination, on the initiative of subscribers, of contracts governing the offer of public networks or of publicly available electronic communication serviceshttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1121279.
The main issues at stake are the non-acceptance of requests to terminate a contract made in shops and the fact that the submission of requests to terminate a contract was subject to the prior receipt of a call from the retention line, without which the customer could not submit their request or the procedure already initiated could not be continued.
There have also been cases where MEO has failed to provide subscribers with the complaint form that it is required to make available on request, and others where it has failed to ask customers for documents that are necessary to confirm the termination of the relevant contracts, or has asked for documents that are not necessary because it already has them.
MEO was also found to have failed to acknowledge several complaints about contracts submitted by customers and to have provided incomplete information about the means and contacts available for submitting termination requests - which can at least be submitted in shops, by letter, by email, by fax and by phone.
With such practices, MEO intended to create unjustified and unlawful obstacles to the procedures for terminating contracts at the initiative of subscribers, in order to hinder, delay or even cause the withdrawal of the procedures for switching service providers, thus hindering the development of competition in the electronic communications market.
The rules introduced by ANACOM on 9 March 2012 are designed to promote competition and the freedom of end-users to choose the operator with which to contract, and to facilitate the exercise of subscribers’ right to terminate their contracts and thus to switch operator. These rules also prohibit the imposition of disproportionate termination conditions and excessively burdensome procedures that discourage subscriber mobility, ensuring that end-users are able to choose the operator that suits them best and thus benefit from more attractive offers in a truly competitive market.
The company’s conduct is particularly serious, as it has led to a failure to comply with a lawful order from ANACOM, which was regularly communicated to the company, thus jeopardising the very regulation of the market in which it operates.
ANACOM will continue to closely monitor issues related to the termination of contracts at the customer’s initiative, in order to ensure compliance with the rules in force.
