Mercury’s implementation and compliance with a Dispute Resolution Scheme
| Issuer | Office of Communications |
Complainant: Own-initiative investigation, following a complaint from a member of the public
Complaint against: Mercury Telecommunications Ltd (‘Mercury’)
Case opened: 26 October 2006
Case closed: 21 February 2007
Issue: Mercury’s compliance with the requirement to implement and comply with a Dispute Resolution Scheme
Relevant instrument: Condition 14.7 of the General Conditions of Entitlement
Update note – 2 May 2007
A non-confidential version of the notification issued to Mercury under Section 94 of the Communications Act 2003 on 21 February 2007 has now been prepared and can be found at the link below.
Since issuing the notification, Ofcom has received confirmation from Otelo that Mercury has now met its obligations with regard to the final decisions made by Otelo. Ofcom has also received confirmation from the Communications & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) that Mercury has been accepted as a member of that ADR scheme.
End of update note
Ofcom has completed its investigation into this case and issued a notification to Mercury under Section 94 of the Communications Act 2003.
Ofcom’s investigation found that there were reasonable grounds for believing that Mercury has contravened the regulatory rule requiring communications providers to be a member of a dispute resolution scheme (“ DRS ”) so that domestic and small business customers can benefit from the protection that free access to alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provides (General Condition 14.7).
Specifically, Mercury has failed to comply with the conditions of membership of the Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman (“Otelo”), including final decisions made by Otelo in relation to complaints about telephony services supplied to its customers.
The Section 94 notification issued by Ofcom on 21 February 2007 requires Mercury to comply with the requirements of General Condition 14.7, and to remedy fully any consequences arising from its failure to comply with that General Condition.
Ofcom would expect that the steps Mercury takes may include, but are not limited to:
(a) Complying with Otelo’s rules of membership for the period 3 October 2005 to 15 December 2006 including:
(i) paying all case fees requested by Otelo for the resolution of disputes submitted to it under the terms of the Dispute Resolution Scheme; and
(ii) complying with all decisions made by the Ombudsman;
(b) Implementing and complying with the rules of membership...
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