Brussels, 04/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 4 October, the European Commission inaugurated a new website to help consumers get a better deal when using mobile phones abroad (“international roaming”). The Commissioner responsible for information society and the media, Viviane Reding, thus keeps the promise that she made in July this year to create such a site, a decision made necessary by the lack of price transparency highlighted by her. “Only a well-informed consumer is a well-armed consumer”, she stressed. Although the Commissioner is not always pleased with the way some operators behave in that they do not provide very clear information on the prices they practice (the code of conduct of GSM operators stipulates that these operators should publish their tariffs on the Internet, an obligation that none of the Greek operators fulfil, Ms Reding stressed), she nonetheless notes that, since this summer, there have been positive initiatives and reawakened competition that she strongly encourages. “For the future, I expect dynamic technology to bring prices down (…) without having to rely on more regulation”, the Commissioner says hopefully.
The new website offers consumers samples of prices practised by all mobile phone operators in the 25 Member States for communications towards a whole series of destinations. The user also has access to more detailed information thanks to the presence of direct links to web pages giving roaming prices of all European Union operators, as well as to other sources of useful information. In addition to this information, there will be advice on how to have the most advantageous deals and particulars of useful contacts for problems and complaints. The prices indicated are those in September 2005 and they will be updated every six months.
The Commission's initiative is completed by the action of the 25 national regulatory authorities which cooperate closely with it on roaming prices. These authorities recently announced a new action to bring in greater transparency in this field, under the auspices of the European Regulators Group (ERG). Its director, Jorgen Abild Andersen, thus specified that the ERG adopted a common position ten days ago relating to the roaming market and the need for regulation. The document comes in the wake of the approach by national regulatory authorities which, in May this year, had begun to study national markets. One of the conclusions reached by the ERG is that “retail charges are currently very high without clear justification”. A first analysis will be notified to the Commission in December and the others will intervene during 2006, Mr Andersen said.
Furthermore, the Commission recalls that the competition services are also closely monitoring the international roaming market. In 2000, it launched a broad anti-trust inquiry on the level of retail and wholesale prices, noting that these prices sometimes appear excessive. The inquiry led to the opening of various anti-trust procedures under Article 82 of the Treaty (abuse of dominant position) against operators in Germany and the United Kingdom, procedures that led to a series of grievances being voiced (see EUROPE 8886), and which are still underway. (The website may be consulted at the following address: http: //http://www.europa.eu.int/information_society/roaming ).