The National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) advises subscribers to monitor service providers' notices regarding contract changes, and if they do not accept the changed conditions, they can use the right of termination within the legal deadline.
The NMHH highlighted in its statement sent to MTI on Monday that this is necessary because more and more telecommunications service providers will raise their fees in the new year, and contract terms on the basis of which the fee increase is automatically adjusted to inflation are becoming more and more common.
The authority explains that when amending the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) introducing the price adjustment mechanism, the subscriber has the right to cancel, but if the inflation-tracking price change is included in the contract from the beginning, or if the subscriber did not exercise his right of cancellation after the contract change introducing the automatic price change, then the you can no longer cancel by referring to this when automatic inflation tracking and the accompanying fee increase are actually applied.
Telecommunications service providers are free to set their prices, and the 2003 Act on Electronic Communications also gives them the opportunity to unilaterally modify their subscription contracts. This also applies to the fees, so even in the case of already concluded contracts, they can freely increase the fees at any time.
This is also the case with fixed-term contracts, so by accepting the "loyalty period", subscribers cannot "fix" the fees valid at the time of signing the contract for the duration of the contract, the advantage of such contracts may be that the service provider offers some kind of discount compared to indefinite-term contracts in the announcement.
The authority also drew attention to the fact that the contract amendment must be distinguished from the case where the contract states from the beginning that the fees will change from a certain date.
In the announcement, it is recalled that last year several large electronic communications service providers included contractual conditions in their General Terms and Conditions (GTC) or updated their previous similar conditions, on the basis of which the fees will change in the future following the development of inflation, i.e. the rate of inflation will be determined the increase or, where appropriate, the decrease of fees.
The most common solution is for service providers to automatically adjust subscription fees once a year by the annual average consumer price index published by the Central Statistical Office, explains the NMHH.
They also explained that the fee correction applied by the service provider is illegal if it is not sufficiently objective, its extent and timing cannot be foreseen, i.e. the service provider leaves it to his own discretion and business decision whether to correct fees. In this case, all actual fee changes are considered to be individually unilateral contract changes, and subscribers must be provided with the right of termination.
Source: MTI
