Own-initiative investigation into Everything Everywhere’s (trading as Orange) compliance with General Condition 23 in respect of its sales and marketing practices
| Issuer | Office of Communications |
Complainant: Ofcom own-initiative investigation following complaints from consumers
Investigation against: Everything Everywhere (trading as Orange)
Case opened: 28 September 2011
Case closed: 22 October 2012
Issue: Whether Everything Everywhere (trading as Orange) complied with its obligations under General Condition 23 of the General Conditions of Entitlement
Relevant Instrument: General Condition 23 (GC23) concerning the Sales and Marketing of Mobile Telephony Services.
Ofcom has now concluded this investigation.
The investigation covered both Orange direct (retail stores, telesales, online) and indirect sales channels (resellers), and the Relevant Period for this investigation (over which we investigated Orange’s compliance with GC23) was 1 February to 31 August 2011. As part of the investigation, we gathered and assessed a number of forms of evidence. These included Orange’s response to formal information requests, witness statements collected by Ofcom from individuals who had complained to us (where their sales interaction with Orange fell within the Relevant Period), and mobile mis-selling complaints received by Ofcom during 2011.
Following a thorough assessment of all the evidence gathered, Ofcom has decided not to take any further enforcement action at this stage. Our reasons for this are as follows:
- The information and evidence examined by Ofcom through the investigation did not highlight systemic compliance issues, or a significant pattern of any kind of conduct consistent with a breach of GC23 over the Relevant Period.
- Orange had already started to make improvements to its processes and systems to facilitate increased compliance with its obligations under GC23 in the following areas:
- Better monitoring of complaints and retailer feedback (for both direct and indirect sales channels).
- The introduction of a Compliance Manager for indirect sales and improved visibility of performance by Orange’s individual sub-dealers.
- An increased focus on compliance monitoring and auditing in its retail sales channels.
- More systematic tracking of staff training in the retail sales channels.
However, Ofcom did identify some areas of weakness in respect of Orange’s compliance with GC23 during the investigation. Ofcom has accepted written assurances from Orange in respect of...
To continue reading
Request your trial