DECO believes that demanding a 24-month customer loyalty contract for clients who obtain a telecommunications service is heavily penalising. Operators insist on applying the maximum period allowed by law, preventing customers from accessing new offers.
Those who want to terminate the contract before its expiry date are faced with an onerous and disproportionate financial penalty when compared to the benefits that customers received for their loyalty.
Based on the constant information of conditions available online, most operators calculate penalties by multiplying the monthly instalment rate by the months remaining until the end of the contract – which is disproportionate.
DECO believes that changing the Electronic Communications Law is essential in order to reduce the maximum customer loyalty period. It is also essential to create a norm that establishes criteria to calculate the penalty charged if the client ends the contract before it expires. Reasonable limits should be set so that they are not an obstacle to change.
With this alteration, DECO hopes to give the client the chance to change telecommunication operator more easily, without being subjected to high costs.
DECO will be handing its petition to this effect into Parliament shortly. To sign the petition, including more than 157,000 signatures, visit:
www.liberdadenafidelizacao.pt
In this new column, Portuguese consumer watchdog DECO will be informing readers of various interesting issues and laws affecting consumer decisions.
