The end to the rolling contract
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13 September 2011
The end of the rolling contract.
Long term contracts for landline and broadband consumers will from 31
December 2011 be unlawful. Ofcom reported that automatically-renewable
contracts (ARCs) damage competition as they make it harder for
customers to switch providers.
Ofcom's Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said "Ofcom's evidence shows that
ARCs raise barriers to effective competition by locking customers into
long term deals with little additional benefit. Our concern about the
effect of ARCs and other 'lock in' mechanisms led to our decision to
ban them in the communications sector."
Good news for consumers but not such good news for the BTs of this
world.
So all residential and small business customers currently on rollover
contracts must be moved to alternative deals, and to completely remove
rollover contracts by 31 December 2012.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/arcs/statement
Michael Coyle is a Solicitor Advocate and can be contacted at
michael.coyle@lawdit.co.uk. www.lawdit.co.uk
About the Author
Lawdit
Solicitors offer services and advice for litigation,
commercial contracts, Intellectual Property and IT legal agreements. We
are experts in commercial law with a heavy emphasis on Intellectual
Property, Internet and e-commerce law. Lawdit is a member of the
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Higher Court Advocates and we are the appointed Solicitors to the
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Designers Association.
