URCA Fines Cable Bahamas Ltd.
6 December 2019
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
URCA issues final Determination and Order to Cable Bahamas Limited for Breaches of Retail Pricing Rules and Other Measures
Today theUtilities Regulation and Competition Authority (‘URCA’) published a Final Determination and Order issued to Cable Bahamas Limited (‘CBL’) for breaches by CBL of the Consumer Protection Regulations and its Individual Operating Licence (IOL).
On 14 June 2019, CBL replaced eight television channels, namely, USA, Freeform, TV Land, Sprout, Nicktoons, Hallmark, Independent Film Channel, and the Tennis Channel, from its REV TV line-up without giving customers the required advanced notice of the changes. Following an investigation, URCA has concluded that CBL must compensate affected subscribers with a monetary bill credit and pay a fine equal to 1.25% of the total revenues from the PRIME, PRIME Extra, and PRIME Sports for the month of June 2019.
On 13 September 2019, URCA issued a Preliminary Determination and Draft Order (document ECS 68/2019) to CBL setting out URCA’s preliminary findings from its investigation into the replacement of the channels. CBL responded to the Preliminary Determination on 10 October 2019. The Final Determination published today summarises CBL’s comments on the Preliminary Determination and URCA’s responses to CBL’s comments.
In its Final Determination URCA found that CBL is in breach of certain conditions of its licence and the Consumer Protection Regulations as follows:
- CBL failed or refused to provide consumers with a minimum notice of one month before implementing the changes;
- CBL provided consumers with information that was not accurate or true;
- CBL failed or refused to publish all non-price terms and conditions for a service on its website; and
- CBL failed or refused to display on its website accurate, true, and up-to-date information on all material aspects for subscribing to a service.
Pursuant to the findings of URCA’s investigations, URCA has directed CBL to:
- Pay a fine equal to 1.25% of the total revenues from the PRIME, PRIME Extra, and PRIME Sports packages for the month of June 2019 no later than thirty (30) calendar days from the issuance of its Final Determination on 21 November 2019; and
- Compensate customers directly affected by the
channel changes via a monetary bill credit in the amount and timeframe
specified by URCA below. The compensation amounts should apply to the accounts
of all impacted subscribers no later than sixty (60) calendar days from 6 December, 2019:
- Subscribers of REVTV PRIME shall receive a bill credit in the amount of $4.00 per subscriber.
- Subscribers of REVTV PRIME Extra shall receive a bill credit in the amount of $6.00 per subscriber. This will be in addition to credits applied for PRIME and/or PRIME Sports.
- Subscribers of REVTV PRIME Sports shall receive a bill credit in the amount of $2.00 per subscriber. This will be in addition to credits applied for PRIME and/or PRIME Extra.
The full scope of URCA’s directives to CBL is set out in Section 4 of the Final Determination. URCA will keep the public updated on CBL’s compliance with the Final Determination.
Copies of URCA’s Final Determination may be downloaded from URCA’s website at www.urcabahamas.bs.
Media Contact
Mavis Johnson-Collie, BSc., MA, LLB, CLE
Corporate & Consumer Relations Manager
Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority
Frederick House, Frederick Street
P. O. Box N-4860
Tel. (242) 393-0234 (Main)
Tel. (242) 396-5201 (Direct)
Facsimile: (242) 393-0153
Web: www.urcabahamas.bs
