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ACCAN has today welcomed the decisive action by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in holding Optus to account and issuing a $12 million fine for risking the welfare of hundreds of consumers during the widespread outage of November 2023. This latest fine signals the need for the company and its new CEO, Steven…
Read More Optus Fined Over 2023 Outage Impacting Triple Zero
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The Digital Platform Regulators Forum (DP-REG) has published a working paper on multimodal foundation models (MFMs) used in generative artificial intelligence (AI). The latest working paper “Examination of technology – Multimodal Foundation Models” examines MFMs – a type of generative AI that can process and output multiple data types, such as image, audio or video…
Read More Regulators Release Working Paper on an AI Generative Model
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The ACCC response to the latest draft of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code validates long-held consumer concerns about the suitability of self-regulation to protect telecommunications consumers. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) welcomes and supports the comments of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on the May 20 draft of the TCP…
Read More Advocates Argue for Direct Regulation of Communication as an Essential Service
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The ACMA has today released a Statement of Expectations on the use of consumer consent to provide guidance to businesses that undertake email, SMS, and telephone marketing. The Statement sets out steps for businesses to ensure they have consumer consent before conducting telemarketing and e-marketing. It is an outcome-focused guide to better practice – designed to…
Read More Consent expectations for businesses using direct marketing
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The industry codes will start with banks, telcos, social media, digital messaging and search advertising services, and will require these groups to have measures in place to prevent, detect, disrupt, respond and report scams.
This will be complemented by strong regulator enforcement action, penalties for non?compliance, and victim compensation where wrongdoing occurs.
Read More Albanese Government to Introduce Mandatory Anti-Scam Industry Codes
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Below is the Centre for Media Transition’s website post on The Enforcement of Telecommunications Consumer Protections and the accompanying media release on the report by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). The website posts were released on 3/04/2024 and are available here (https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centre-media-transition/projects-and-research/enforcement-telecommunications-consumer-protections) and here (https://accan.org.au/media-centre/media-releases/2288-uts-enforcement-report). As noted by both the report and ACCAN,…
Read More 13 Years of ACMA Telecommunications Enforcement
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The telecommunications regulator, the ACMA, has developed a new regulation called the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard (the FH standard). The FH Standard will commence on March 29, and compliance is mandatory.
Read More ACCAN’s Quick Guide for Consumers to the new Financial Hardship Standard
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Funded in the 2023 Budget, the Government’s Registry works by creating a controlled list of numbers of registered brand names, and preventing text messages from being sent using registered brand names unless the originating number matches the approved phone number on the Registry.
Feedback from consumers, industry, charities and government services will inform Government decision-making about next steps, including funding models for the finalised scheme.
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These rules have been developed by the ACMA in response to a direction from the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, to make an enforceable industry standard that will improve safeguards for telco customers experiencing financial difficulties.
The new Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 requires telcos to establish and promote clearly accessible written financial hardship policies. Telcos must do more to proactively identify customers experiencing financial hardship and prioritise keeping them connected to services.
Read More New Telco Industry Standard to Address “range of financial gaps”
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The Communications Alliance, the peak industry body for the Australian communications sector, has released a proposed framework and review package for the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.
Read More New Telco Code Proposal Fails to Deliver
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Telstra has paid a $3,010,320 penalty and refunded over $17.7 million to thousands of customers after charging them for inactive internet services over an 11-year period. A further $3.4 million is to be refunded by the end of the year.
An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found that 6,532 customers, the majority of whom were small businesses, were wrongly billed by Telstra an average of around $2,600 between April 2012 and August 2023.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the ACMA has lost patience with Telstra after this series of significant billing errors.
Read More Telstra to Pay $24 million in Penalties and Refunds for Inaccurate Billing
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The proposed standard will apply to all carriage service providers who deal with residential, small business and not-for-profit customers. It will enhance protections for telco customers who are (or may be) experiencing financial hardship through the provision of information and appropriate financial support to help them meet their payment obligations and remain connected to essential telco services.
The standard must be made by 15 February 2024 and commence by 29 March 2024.
We invite submissions on the draft Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 by 5 pm (AEDT) on Friday 24 November 2023.
Read More ACMA consults on new protections for telco consumers in financial hardship
