Transparency and Simplicity
A significant barrier to providing consumer education about Electronic Communications Services (ECS) is that many consumers ‘don’t know what they don’t know’. These consumers are unlikely to search for consumer information and may make expensive mistakes or be the subject of fraud or scams. Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Electronic Communications Code – the EECC – emphasises transparency as a tool for empowering the End Users.
The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications considers that the provisions around transparency and contractual information of the EECC have a positive impact on End Users and aid the development of the retail market. The contract summary and increasing use of comparison tools are expected to be of particular benefit.
Transparency measures introduced in the EECC:
- Information requirements in the website (Annex IX of the EECC);
- Contractual terms and conditions (Article 102 of the EECC, Annex VIII of the EECC);
- Contract summary template (Article 102(3) of the EECC, European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2243 establishing a template for the contract summary to be used by providers of publicly available electronic communications services);
- Legislation on bundle offers (Article 107 of the EECC);
- Introduction of comparison tools (Article 103(2) and 103(3) of the EECC);
- Possibility of provisions of additional information related to financial or volume limits (Article 102(6) of the EECC).
One of the most important goals of the competent authorities is to reach End Users to make sure that they understand what they can expect and clarify the legal conditions to avoid complaints caused by misunderstanding their rights.
Contracts between providers of ECS and their End Users are becoming increasingly complex and can take different forms (e.g. provided electronically or in hard copy, concluded in the provider’s shop or at a distance, etc.) and may include different amounts and categories of information. To allow consumers to make informed and correct decisions when acquiring, terminating, or switching ECS, such contracts must provide clear and relevant information in a simplified, easily understandable manner – regulation and monitoring of the requirements related to simplifying contracts, such as the contract summary template.