NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has issued its consultation on the proposed revisions of the consumer protection regulations for the electronic communications sector in The Bahamas.
The regulations were originally introduced nearly a decade ago. Given the time that has passed since the regulations were published, the changes that have occurred in the sector markets, and URCA’s experience with handling consumer complaints since 2013, URCA’s proposed revisions intend to make the regulations up-to-date and fit for purpose; clarify ambiguous parts of the regulations; and issue new measures in areas where consumers were not protected.
Some key areas where changes are proposed to better protect consumers are: broadening the scope of who should provide a minimum level of service to consumers; making consumers more aware of fair use policies; ensuring consumers are fully aware of all aspects of the service they are paying for; ensuring consumers are not misled by advertisements of unlimited services; better informing consumers of planned and unplanned service outages; more easily opting out of receiving unsolicited text messages that contain advertisements; and reducing the allowed length of time for resolution of consumer complaints.
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The consultation also contains some other changes that are intended to strengthen consumer protections.
URCA would appreciate stakeholders’ views on its proposals and invites comments on other parts of the regulations that were not included in the proposed revisions.
When submitting responses, URCA urges respondents to provide supporting explanations in their submissions. URCA will then review the responses received and publish a Statement of Results on the consultation along with the final Regulations.
A copy of the consultation document can be found at URCA’s website, www.urcabahamas.bs, and the deadline for responses is 19 October 2023.