The new electronic communications code, which enters into force on December 24, will begin to take effect from January 2022. Many of which have strong and important consequences for end users in terms of new rights or strengthening existing rights. . We analyzed the text published in the Official Gazette, in particular the very rich article 98, with the help of Marco Pierani – the institutional column of Altroconsumo – and one of the most well-known and historical telecommunications jurists, Fulvio Sarzana.
24 month contracts
The best known news concerns the duration of the contracts.
A point on which many newspapers, including Sole24Ore, have already written; but an analysis of the law reveals some less evident and potentially problematic aspects for the consumer, according to Pierani and Sarzana. According to the new code, every telephony contract, including the equipment installments, must now last for a maximum of 24 months; there is also the new obligation for operators to include among their commercial offers at least one offer with “an initial maximum duration of 12 months”. Now, as you know, there are also offers with a duration of 48 months, with installments to be paid – for routers or smartphones included in the contract – even after cancellation. A situation that according to the consumer associations and the Antitrust was not optimal, because the customer and the competition were blocked.
The compromises of the text
The current text is a compromise, which matured after the parliamentary passage: the decree in the previous version provided for a maximum duration of 12 months. A potentially negative impact of the cut in installments, as reported by the operators, is the possible increase in the cost of the single installment. The new 5G smartphone or fiber optic router in homes would have a higher monthly cost, perhaps thus discouraging some consumers. However, it is not certain that the operators will adapt in this way to the changed duration of the contract. Pierani and Sarzana’s attention then focused on an unclear part of the decree: the only exception to the limit of 24 months, in the new code, “if the consumer has agreed in a separate contract to make payments in installments exclusively for the installation of a physical connection, in particular to very high-capacity networks “. However, “an installment contract for installing a physical connection does not include terminal equipment, such as a router or modem, and does not prevent consumers from exercising their rights under this article.” What does that mean?
The obligations of the operators
The most probable interpretation, for Sarzana and Pierani, is that operators will be able to have separate contracts for the installments of the service; here including only the technical intervention, no equipment. And these installments could be of very long duration. The risk, according to the two experts, is that this exception acts as a ploy for operators to charge other costs on the installation, in an invisible way. “The router could be free, formally, but its cost can be practically discharged within the installments”, fears Pierani.
The role of Agcom
The role of Agcom will be essential to monitor the adequacy of costs and in general the interpretation of certain less explicit regulatory passages. The changes on the duration of contracts also apply to micro-enterprises, professionals and organizations unless otherwise agreed with the operator. ” This extension to non-consumer users is an important novelty – says Sarzana; before it was only envisaged in some resolutions of the Agcom, now it becomes the primary norm “. The right of withdrawal for contractual changes” Other points of the code also serve to canonize, in primary law, rights previously supported only by secondary norms. This strengthens them and makes them more binding for operators – explains Sarzana. An example are the rules on the right of free withdrawal in the event of contractual changes “. The code reaffirms – strengthening it – the user’s right to be notified within 30 days in the event of unilateral contractual changes and to cancel them as a result free of charge (without cancellation costs), if these changes are pejorative. In addition, it gives the user 60 days to think about it (therefore even beyond the day of entry into force of the contractual changes), against the current 30 days.