Eleven telcos in ACMA's sights for breaching consumer protection rules

The Australian Communications and Media Authority watchdog is going after eleven smaller telcos for failing to adhere to strict consumer protection rules.

Of these, M2 Commander copped a formal warning from ACMA for transferring a customer from another telco, without the subscriber's consent, a practice known as slamming.

A further ten telcos were directed by ACMA to submit annual compliance statements to show that they are meeting their obligations under the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code.

The telcos are CNS Group Australia, Exetel, Novel Telecom, Real Sim, Red Broadband, Simply NBN, Telco4U, Trikon, Uniti Wireless and Voiteck.

If they fail to submit compliance statements, the telcos could face fines and court proceedings, ACMA said.

SInce July last year, ACMA has issued 14 directions and seven formal warnings to telcos to comply with the TCP Code.

The watchdog's chair Nerida O'Loughlin said ACMA takes breaches of the TCP Code, strengthened this year, very seriously.

“These actions serve as a message to the wider industry that the ACMA will pursue failures to comply with consumer protection rules,” O'Loughlin aid.