Congress seeks that operators compensate and return money to users for interruption of internet and telephony

The Consumer Defense Commission of the Congress of the Republic discussed, on Monday, March 13, the project of Law 3339 that aims to force telecommunications companies to compensate users affected by the interruptions of their public services. The initiative proposes empowering the Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel) in order to apply a scheme of administrative compensation in favor of the users who are affected.

The debate of the project that seeks to benefit users when their telephone, mobile, television and internet services are affected, went to an intermediate room to analyze the contributions made by the legislators and include them in the substitute text. In communication with this newsroom, from the Consumer Defense Commission They affirmed that there is unanimity in this project and that its approval would be seen in the next session on Monday, March 27, after the Representation Week ended.

It should be noted that currently, in the event of a service interruption, the operating companies are obliged to make a proportional refund of the fixed charge for the time that the service was suspended; however, this does not compensate the affectation of the user to not have the service.

Let us remember that during 2022, the operating companies registered more than 470,000 claims due to breakdown through its different service channels, due to problems with the quality of the service or failures in the operating system. This was evidenced by the Osiptel User Information Portal.

Competition to Osiptel

According to the document presented by the parliamentarian of Magisterial Block, Elizabeth Medina, If the interruption of the public telecommunications services occurs, the operators have the obligation to return or not demand the payment made for said period. SAdded to this, they must compensate their customers for the time they did not have the service. Meanwhile, Osiptel must determine the cases, method of calculation and conditions in which the indicated compensation is made.

Within the foundations of the project, figure article 100 of the Consumer Code remembering that the company that causes damages to the client is obliged to indemnify you in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code in the corresponding jurisdictional channel, without prejudice to criminal liability, as well as administrative sanctions and remedial and complementary corrective measures that may be imposed.

For which cases would it not apply?

According to the circular, the regulatory proposal does not apply to cases in which the interruption has been generated by a fortuitous situation or force majeure, duly accredited before Osiptel. The document mentions that in recent years, after the pandemic, the importance of the provision of public telecommunications services for the population has increased as a telehealth, teleeducation, telework. Therefore, it is necessary to prioritize the implementation of these measures.

Finally, they refer that the objective of this bill is similar to that of electricity concessions, where it is established that the users of the public electricity distribution service have the right to receive compensation when there are interruptions, rationing and non-compliance with the quality standards established by law.