The president of the National Communications Authority (Anacom) has classified today as “dramatic the situation in Portugal” of “abuse of loyalty” in electronic communications, i.e. contracts that have not been authorized by consumers.
João Cadete de Matos was speaking at the parliamentary committee on Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing, in the context of the hearing of the National Communications Authority (Anacom) at the request of the PCP on “the announced increases in telecommunication and CTT tariffs.
The fidelizations “are a mistake that the country has had”, because they were presented to the Portuguese as a solution in which this “was cheaper”, but compared to Spain “it costs twice as much”, he pointed out.
“Even more serious is the fact that in Portugal we have seen over the past few years, particularly during the year in which the auction of frequencies took place, an increase in loyalty campaigns, therefore, long before reaching the end of two years of loyalty, customers are loyalized,” said the official, in the opening speech.
And “even more serious are refidelizations through the increase of abusive refidelizations, that is, without the consumers having given their agreement to this situation,” denounced the regulator, who classified this situation as “dramatic.
“It is dramatic, and I say this in a very measured way, the situation in Portugal that the regulatory authority is confronted with by consumers who complain every day about this situation of abuse of re-loyalizations,” emphasized João Cadete de Matos.
That is, of not having authorized hirings, “many of them done at a distance,” he mentioned.
João Cadete de Matos considered that there is a “clear competition deficit in Portugal”, recalling the conditions created for new companies to enter the Portuguese market in the 5G auction.