APPENDIX 1
REGULATION OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOUR
(PAC/97-98/357)
Supplementary Memorandum from OFTEL
Q14. What proportion of the "own initiative"
cases generated between 1995 and 1997 lead to an acceptable change
in behaviour without the need for enforcement action?
That is, of the 22 own initiative cases concerned,
10 cases led to an acceptable change in behaviour without the
need for formal enforcement action. In the remaining cases it
was found that there had been no licence breach.
Q27-28. Under the regime to be introduced by the
Competition Bill, if a company disagreed with the Director General's
financial penalties could it challenge the decision in the courts?
Under clause 46 of the Competition Bill (as
currently drafted) the Director General's decision may be appealed
to the new Competition Commission. It is proposed that the Commission
may impose its own decision in place of the Director General's
and this would include a decision on whether a penalty should
be imposed or as to the amount of any penalty.
Under clause 49 of the Bill, decisions of the
Competition Commission Appeals Tribunal may be appealed to the
Court of Appeal (Court of Session in Scotland) on "a point
of law" or "as to the amount of a penalty" arising
from a decision of the tribunal.
Q85. How many of the approximately 40,000 complaints
received per annum by Consumer Representation Section from consumers
are passed to the Competition and Fair Trading Directorate?
OFTEL aims to handle the overwhelming majority
of complaints received from consumers in its Consumer Representation
Section (CRS).
The Competition and Fair Trading casework management
records do not capture the origin of an investigation beyond specifying
whether it is self-generated or complaint driven.
Of the cases handled by the Competition and
Fair Trading Directorate (C&FTD):
— Some arise directly from CRS. If
their action does not resolve the case it can be passed to C&FTD.
A recent example would be the unwanted Telesales case (in which
the Director General has issued a notice proposing to make a final
order) which is recorded as originating from a specific complaint
from a small business.
— Others arise when OFTEL identifies
an issue or widely held concern. These cases fall within OFTEL's
self generated investigations because there is no specific complaint
or complainant.
In 1997, CRS received just over 42,000 requests
for help and advice, compared with 11,600 during the first quarter
of 1998. Contact is received via letter, telephone, fax and Internet.
We generally encourage network operators and service providers
to resolve consumer disputes with their customers before becoming
directly involved. A high percentage of cases are dealt with on
a "good offices" basis as they do not fall within licence
conditions or direct legislation.
All contacts are recorded against categories
and operators, enabling the identification of trends, new issues,
particular areas of consumer concern and facilitating public feedback
on OFTEL action and initiatives. From this data various issues
of consumer concern have been pursued over the past 18 months.
Initiatives include encouraging network operators and service
providers to raise service standards and to improve the quality
of customers services.
The business user representative groups have
had an influential role in encouraging OFTEL's C&FTD (and
other OFTEL Directorates) to investigate issues of concern. A
current investigation is looking at the competitiveness of the
leased lines market. Information has been provided by several
large businesses on the prices they pay for these circuits in
the UK and abroad.
Although in comparison to large businesses,
small businesses are less well resourced to lobby OFTEL on particular
areas they are likely to benefit from the ability of large businesses
to encourage the development of competition and through success
in raising the profile of user needs. An additional Small Business
Task Force has been established to identify and address problems
faced by small businesses.
In order to build on the consumer views that
reach OFTEL via the various consumer bodies and groups with which
we have contact, we have recently commissioned a customer survey
to establish customer views and awareness of a range of consumer
issues including availability of services and prices.
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