Changes in the telecommunication law

Ten post dostępny jest także w języku: polski

From 21 December 2020, the new telecommunication law will come into force. The planned change is a result of the adoption of the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the European Electronic Communications Code.

Changes in favour of recipients

The new regulations are the first stage of implementation in Poland of the Directive establishing the European Electronic Communications Code, which introduces several important changes. According to the legislator, the regulations are aimed at increasing the rights of subscribers of telecommunications companies, which are often the weaker party when concluding an agreement with a given operator.

One of the most important changes, from the customers’ perspective, is the possibility of remote termination of a contract for the provision of telecommunications services. According to previous regulations, the customer could only terminate it in paper form. The new regulations give the possibility to terminate the contract by means of an electronic form, which does not even require us to leave home or contact the operator directly – which is a great convenience in the current situation. In the case of the new regulations, the operator must also notify the customer of the receipt of the declaration of resignation and its confirmation. In practice, this will make it possible to resign from the offer with the current operator and take advantage of a more attractive offer from another provider.

Another important change is to prevent the telecommunication operator from automatically extending the contract without the customer’s knowledge. The European Code of Electronic Communications introduces an obligation, not later than 30 days before the end of the contract, to inform the customer about such action. In addition to the mere notification of the extension of services, the operator must also inform the customer about the possible way to terminate the contract.

The new law also protects against unwanted services

Telecommunication operators are also obliged to collect obligations only for services included in the contract. This solution protects customers from the cost of launching additional services and excluding the costs of solutions guaranteed in existing contracts. Additionally, once a year the operator will be obliged to provide information about the most advantageous tariff packages offered.

An interesting option is also to enable monitoring of service consumption. From 21 December this year, each client will have the opportunity to check the actual use of the service, which may be helpful especially in the case of controlling the use of Internet packets.