ICP-ANACOM determination of 10 October 2011 on the object and form of disclosure of conditions of provision and use of electronic communications services establishes a set of obligations that providers were required to implement within 120 working days. These obligations apply only to the disclosure of information relating to standardised offers associated with publicly available electronic communication services aimed at end-users.
ICP-ANACOM planned to complete its oversight of compliance with the determination by operators in different stages.
In 2012, a preliminary examination was made of information disclosure models regarding offer conditions on the websites of all providers subject to the determination. The preliminary examination focused on evaluating the following points stipulated in the determination:
- Compliance with stipulations concerning the visibility of information about conditions governing the offer of services posted on websites (point v) and vi) of section 5 of the determination).
- Inclusion of information about offer conditions, covering the seven items referred to in points vii) and viii) of section 5 of the determination ("Identification of the provider", "Information on services being provided", "Standard tariffs", "Compensation or refund systems", "Types of maintenance service offered", "Standard contract conditions", "Dispute settlement mechanisms") and indication, for each of these items, of the corresponding dates of publication and the latest update.
- Obligation to insert a link to ICP-ANACOM's Observatório de Tarifário (Tariff Monitor) when the company provides any of the services covered by that Monitor (MTS, FTS, Internet, television, and/or combinations of these services).
All non-conformities detected in terms of provisions of the determination were systematically notified to providers, and further consultation was undertaken focusing on the respective websites to verify proper rectification of non-compliant situations. As at the end of 2012 some of these non-conformities had still not been rectified.
In addition to this preliminary examination, ICP-ANACOM also conducted enforcement actions at various outlets of different providers, likewise to conduct a preliminary examination of the disclosure models of offer conditions (section 16.1 of the present report).
Note is also made of the analysis conducted by ICP-ANACOM of subscription contracts used by companies providing public electronic communications networks or publicly available electronic communications services that involve, even partially, submission to general contractual clauses.
In this context, ICP-ANACOM found contractual conditions possibly incorporating evidence of non-compliance with legislation which assigns powers and responsibilities to ASAE - Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (Food and Economic Safety Authority), Decree-Law no. 143/2001 of 26 April, as amended and republished by Decree-Law no. 82/2008 of 20 May.
Given ASAE's responsibility in monitoring compliance with the legal framework governing contracts with households and equivalent contracts, ICP-ANACOM submitted the uncovered items to assessment by this authority, with disclosure to the Direção-Geral do Consumidor (Directorate General for the Consumer).
