The Office of the Communications Authority (“OFCA”) welcomed the conviction by the Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts today (14 April 2016) of Easycall Limited (“the Company”), a telecommunications services provider, of nine offences of supplying local prepaid SIM cards to which a false trade description was applied, which are in contravention of section 7A of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (Cap. 362) (“TDO”). A representative of the Company pleaded guilty to nine summonses laid against the Company. The Magistracy imposed a total fine of $45,000 on the Company for committing the offences.
The Company provided local prepaid SIM cards which enabled consumers to make local calls. OFCA received a consumer complaint in March last year alleging that the Company had engaged in unfair trade practices in the course of providing prepaid SIM card services. Having conducted an investigation into the complaint, OFCA found that the Company had unilaterally lengthened the period to which the peak hour charges for local calls would apply, which was different from the information concerning what constituted peak hours as pre-printed on the packaging of the prepaid SIM cards. As a result of the changes, a SIM card user would incur a substantial increase of local call charges during the relevant periods. Prosecution was initiated against the Company by OFCA for contravening section 7A(1)(b) of the TDO, which provides that “a trader who supplies … to a consumer a service to which a false trade description is applied commits an offence”.
The TDO prohibits unfair trade practices committed by any traders. According to the TDO, the Communications Authority is conferred concurrent jurisdiction with the Commissioner of Customs and Excise to investigate commercial practices of licensees under the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106) or the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562) that are directly connected with the provision of a telecommunications or broadcasting service. Any person who commits an offence under the fair trading provisions of the TDO shall be liable to a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
“We would like to remind all traders, including telecommunications and broadcasting licensees, to comply with the fair trading provisions of the TDO. OFCA will continue to examine carefully complaints received under the TDO against our licensees and will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement actions having regard to the facts and evidence of individual cases,” a spokesperson for OFCA said.
Office of the Communications Authority
14 April 2016