ACMA rejects ‘deficient' protections code – for now

Australia's peak communications consumer body ACCAN has today welcomed the decision of the telco regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), to refuse to register the draft Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.

The ACMA has issued a formal notice to the industry lobby, the Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) requiring them to “address deficiencies” in the 2019 TCP Code, within 30 days.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said that consumers have known for a long-time that the telco written self-regulatory code is deficient and has failed to do its job – protecting the public.

ACCAN, leading an alliance of over 20 consumer organisations – the Fair Call Coalition - have long called for the TCP Code to be replaced with direct regulation to ensure that consumers have effective protections.

“After almost 30 months of back-and-forth consultation and stalled progress on consumer protection, we have little confidence that another 30 days is going to deliver the Code improvements that Australians need. The reality is that industry is acting in its interests which are not about putting the public interest first, which is why self-regulation is failing Australians.”

“The TCP Code has been in force for almost seven years now, and in that time we have seen significant sales misconduct and shonky credit assessments that have wreaked havoc in the lives of consumers.”

“ACMA now recognises, like the rest of the community, that the TCP Code is deficient and fails to provide appropriate consumer protections in areas such as aggressive sales practices, shonky credit checks and inaccurate information on coverage.”

“Effective consumer protections stops harm from occurring in the first place.”

“Today’s decision from ACMA is recognition of the deep inadequacy of the industry written and monitored Code to fulfil its purpose: to deliver appropriate community safeguards.”

“We call on ACMA to make use of their legislative powers to establish standards that truly protect consumers.  There is no time to waste – consumers need and deserve protection from harm.”

Today’s decision opens the door to advancing stronger consumer protections through direct regulation by the ACMA or the Minister for Communications, once industry has had the opportunity to respond to notice of deficiency (a minimum of 30 days).

ACCAN looks forward to further engaging with the regulator, industry and government on this matter.