Well, Norfolk Trading Standards have submitted their response to Ofcom's NTS Consultation: A Way Forward
here.
I quote this from it:-
Quote:Ofcom supports compulsory price indications for NTS services. We disagree. Consumer protection law does not require any price indication to be given in relation to the provision of a telecommunications service. Criminal and civil sanctions can be imposed against advertisers who give a misleading price indication. By choosing not to give any price indication at all, advertisers can easily and legally avoid any risk that they are breaking the law and that those sanctions will be applied against them. It would be wrong to deny advertisers this option.
It is not desirable to require advertisers to give price indications for a product supplied by a third party (i.e. the OCP), where neither the advertiser nor any regulator has control over the price charged.
Ofcom suggests at A8.7 that it is better to give a 'fairly accurate' price indication than to leave consumers 'completely in the dark' about call prices. This is equivalent to saying that it is better to give a somewhat misleading price indication than not to give one at all. We disagree strongly.
We would not object to an indication which merely puts callers on notice that the call is not charged at a standard rate (e.g. 'Check rates with your service provider'), and gives no indication of price.
We strongly support Ofcom's proposals to require OCP's to publish their NTS call charges more prominently and accessibly, and we believe that these proposals will significantly reduce the already questionable benefit of
advertisers giving price indications. In our own work on this issue, we have found it difficult to ascertain call charges from OCP's, and particularly from mobile OCP's.
We submit that any future advertising guidance must recognise silence on price as a legal and acceptable option for advertisers.
They feel very, very strongly about not advertising the price of a call. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Norfolk Council use 0844 that cost 5ppm?
I agree it's impossible to give a price indication from all teleco's but I believe Ofcom are correct in saying it's better to give a price indication from BT landline than none at all. Simply because most landline teleco's charge approximately the same price as BT (slightly less in most cases). The only exception is, of course, those low-cost, no-frills providers like Call18866/1899, etc.
Norfolk Council are of the opinion that simply stating "rates may vary" is sufficient. I don't believe that makes us consumers aware of the call charges especially if its an 0845 / 0870, etc because most consumers will not bother checking simply because they will think it's just the same price as a local/national call.
I believe that anyone using an NGN's should state the cost of the call per minute from a BT landline. For a 0845 it could read, "Calls cost upto 4ppm from a BT landline, prices vary from other networks." Exactly what ASA/CAP & Ofcom have decided on so far.
Regardless to what Norfolk Council think that isn't in most cases misleading because it reads "upto". Only time it's really wrong is for mobile networks and payphones and I believe ofcom should force price announcements on the networks for any call that isn't charged at normal geographical rates. Don't the mobile networks already give a price announcement for freephone calls so could they not modify this to give a price indication on 084x/087x as well?
For those that didn't know Norfolk Council have issued a factsheet for businesses in their area that state they can't advertise their 0845/0870 as local/national but can remain silent on the cost of the call. I challanged this and mentioned ASA/CAP guidelines and they stood by what they have mentioned in their factsheet. You can view their factsheet (in pdf format)
here and read their reply to my email
here.
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OFCOM - FUTURE OF 0870 NUMBERS - CONSULTATION (Read 367,900 times)
