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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, to a question by the Hon James To in the Legislative Council today (May 19):
Question :
The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development indicated at the meeting of this Council on January 6 this year that the Administration would speed up the review of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (Cap. 362) and submit to the relevant Panel of this Council a paper on the proposed legislative amendments to regulate issues such as pre-paid services (including telecommunications service contracts, etc.) and high-pressure marketing practices. Moreover, in order to heighten customer satisfaction levels by improving the provisions used in telecommunications service contracts, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued in February this year a Code of Practice for Communications Service Contracts and invited communications service providers to comply with the Code voluntarily. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of complaints received by the Police and the Consumer Council in each of the past three years about pre-paid services involving beauty care, yoga, fitness and travel club membership and, among them, the number of such cases resolved, together with a breakdown by the type of the cases;
(b) when the authorities expect to complete the aforesaid work to amend the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, commence public consultation on the proposed amendments and give an account of the work progress to the relevant Panel of this Council;
(c) whether at present there are communications service providers which voluntarily comply with the aforesaid Code of Practice issued by OFTA; if so, of the list of such companies; if not, what methods the Government will adopt to encourage communications service providers to comply with the Code of Practice; and
(d) given that OFTA has been implementing a pilot programme for the Customer Complaint Settlement Scheme since September 2008 to provide mediation and adjudication services for disputes relating to telecommunications service contracts, of the total number of cases handled under the pilot programme to date, the respective numbers of those resolved through mediation and adjudication and, among the cases resolved by adjudication, the respective numbers of those in which decisions have ruled in favour of the customers and those in favour of the telecommunications service providers?
Reply :
President,
In line with our earlier commitment, we issued a paper to the Panel on Economic Development on May 17 providing details on the legislative proposals prepared by the Administration to tackle unfair trade practices. After listening to and considering Members' views, we will finalise the document for public consultation as soon as possible. Apart from proposing to strengthen existing legislation and institutions, we will continue our efforts in consumer education and publicity so as to increase consumer awareness of unfair trade practices.
The replies to the four parts of question are as follows:
(a) The number of complaints received by the Consumer Council between 2007 and 2009 concerning prepayment in the industries, and the number of such cases resolved are set out in the annex.
The police does not keep statistics on reported cases concerning prepayment.
(b) The review of existing legislation to better tackle unfair trade practices is almost completed. We will present the Government's proposals at the meeting of the Panel on Economic Development scheduled for May 24. Our plan is to publish a public consultation document in the third quarter of this year.
(c) The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued a voluntary Code of Practice for communications service contracts (the CoP) in February this year. The CoP serves to provide guidelines to the industry for making service contracts that are fair and reasonable, with a view to increasing customer satisfaction levels. The CoP covers various dimensions of such contracts, including the format of contracts, how to handle oral agreements and the extension of contracts, the right of customers to terminate contracts, etc.
Operators are now reviewing their respective operating systems to assess whether they can pledge full compliance with the CoP. Nevertheless, as observed by OFTA, the services provided by some operators are already in compliance with certain terms of the CoP. OFTA will continue to follow up with operators and encourage them to comply with the CoP in full. If we find no improvement in the situation in respect of communications service contracts, we will not rule out the introduction of more stringent measures, such as mandatorily requiring operators to comply with the CoP.
(d) The Customer Complaint Settlement Scheme (CCSS) aims at resolving contractual or billing disputes between customers and telecommunications service providers through mediation and adjudication. OFTA ran a pilot scheme of the CCSS from September 2008 to February 2010, with the participation of three operators. Eighteen cases were processed under the scheme. The status of the cases is as follows:
Status Number of Cases
Settled after mediation 6
Adjudication completed 11
(results as follows)
Ruled in favour of the operator 4
Ruled in favour of the customer 5
Both parties have to bear 2
some responsibility
Pending ruling by the adjudicator 1
Total 18
OFTA plans to consult the public later this year on the long term implementations of the CCSS.
Ends/Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:21
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