[ad_1]
The Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection, Deco, conducted an analysis of essential water service providers in three sectors – water, energy (including water), Electricity and gas) and electronic communications – for provided access to the electronic complaint file, which is mandatory under the law since July 1 of last year.
The study covered the entire country, including the mainland and the islands, a total of 392 sites and found that 62% of these sites did not comply with the legislation.
The highest rate of non-compliance occurred in the sector of the total number of sites analyzed, of which 229 did not provide the electronic complaint file, resulting in a 70% failure rate , the highest of the three sectors analyzed.
In the energy sector, the failure rate was 39%, since 14 of the 36 sites analyzed did not contain an electronic claim form.
"These default rates could be much higher if we had Given the precise terms that the law determines for this obligation" to make available the book of complaints, López told Deco's lawyer Margarida Moura , noting that the law requires that access to this book of complaints be visible and visible.
"In many situations, we could only access the claims book for the search on the site itself: often, access was checked by a link or logo whose colors and size passed "other times, we had to go through all the menus and find access in an information menu", explains the lawyer, explaining that Deco considered these situations as a compliment
which obliges these suppliers to make the complaint book available since last July, provides for sanctions in case of non-compliance, with counter-orders with fines ranging from 1,500 to 15,000 euros. [19659002] In the light of the results of this analysis, According to the lawyer, the Consumer Affairs Department is concerned about the breach of this legal obligation to protect and facilitate the exercise by consumers of their rights. [19659002] L & # 39; Associatio n – which calls for amendments to the law that oblige service providers (ERSE, ANACOM, ERSAR) alerting on the findings of the study and calling for greater enforcement of the law.
In order to facilitate access to this complaint book, he also sent letters to the regulators of the three sectors. July 1, the State Secretary for Trade, Paulo Alexandre Ferreira, in statements to Lusa, made a "very positive" of the first year of the electronic book of complaints, counting "about 50 thousand complaints" and announcing its extension to all sectors of this day.
[ad_2]
Source link
