Displaying items by tag: Rod Sims

The New Zealand Commerce Commission has taken a preliminary decision to retain the power to regulate mobile roaming in the country, in the event that it is required in future.

The head of Australia’s competition watchdog says all governments should examine the role digital platforms are playing in society to determine if polices are needed to curb their “pursuit of profit”.

The circumstances surrounding the Australian start-up Unlockd, which was forced to go into administration recently because Google played hardball with it, are another good reason for the competition watchdog to focus on the search behemoth in its digital platforms inquiry.

Optus has been fined $1.5 million in the Federal Court for misleading customers by telling them their services would be disconnected if they did not move from its HFC network to the national broadband network.

The best way for Australia to show that it takes the privacy of its citizens seriously would be for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to levy a hefty fine on Google for having the guts to not only spy on all Android users, but to also use their own data to do so. Talk of chutzpah.

Oracle has upped its spat with Google, providing research to Australia's competition watchdog that claims the search behemoth is using the mobile data of Australians to spy on them.

The competition watchdog, the ACCC, says more and more consumers are receiving higher-speed NBN plans and the 50Mbps plan now makes up 26% of all NBN plans, up from just 4.6% in December 2017.

The Coalition Government’s Federal Budget allocation of funding for the establishment of a Consumer Data Right scheme has been welcomed by the competition watchdog — the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — which will oversee development of the scheme.

Telstra has been hit with a $10 million fine for signing up as many as 100,000 customers for ringtones, gaming and digital content without their knowledge.

The competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, says Australia’s market for broadband and voice services is operating competitively despite the levels of market concentration.

The first report from the ACCC's broadband monitoring programme shows that NBN services from iiNet, Optus, Telstra and TPG are achieving between 80% and a little over 90% of the maximum plan speeds during the busy evening period.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network says telcos do well out of the telecommunications industry, and need to step up and resolve complaints about third-party charges themselves, not send their customers off to third-party providers for resolution.

Telstra's variation to the NBN migration plan, using fibre-to-the-curb in addition to other technologies, has been granted approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The competition watchdog, the ACCC, has launched its quest for submissions to its upcoming digital platforms public inquiry, including a review of whether digital platforms have affected media organisations’ ability to fund and produce quality news and journalistic content for Australians.

Australian Consumer and Competition Commission chairman Rod Sims says rules will be introduced to penalise the NBN Co when its technicians do not turn up for scheduled appointments.

A full bench of the Federal Court has thrown out an appeal by online video game retailer Valve Corporation against a ruling that it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations about consumer guarantees.

The Federal Court has rejected Vodafone Hutchison Australia's application to review the conduct of the competition watchdog in holding a public inquiry and making a draft decision not to declare mobile roaming.

The competition watchdog the ACCC– concerned about increasing service complaints to the National Broadband Network - has issued a discussion paper as part of its inquiry to consider whether regulation is necessary to improve customer experiences with the NBN.

The competition regulator the ACCC has hauled Australia’s second largest telco Optus before the Federal Court, alleging the company misled customers about the need to move quickly from its existing HFC network to the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Optus has become the second telco to offer compensation to its customers on certain NBN plans, with about 8700 users to be offered "remedies" for being misled about the maximum speeds they could achieve.