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BT wrong to contact transferring customers, says Tribunal


BT's suspended practice of targeting customers who are transferring to alternative telecoms suppliers, in order to persuade them not to make the switch, is illegal under the Communications Act, according to a ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The case relates to certain BT procedures that require a telecoms company to notify BT when a customer intends to switch to its service, so that BT can make the necessary changes to its own systems to allow the transfer to take place.

Until November last year, BT passed this information to its marketing department, which then contacted the customer to try and persuade them to stay with BT.

BT temporarily ceased making these "save calls", following an order to do so by the then industry regulator, Oftel. Oftel, now replaced by Ofcom, had investigated the matter after receiving a complaint from rivals THUS and Broadsystem Ventures Limited.

The regulator found that BT was in breach of rules that require confidential information obtained during the process of negotiating network access to be used only for the purpose for which it was supplied and not to be passed on "to any other party (in particular other departments, subsidiaries or partners) for whom such information could provide a competitive advantage."

BT condemned the order at the time, stating that it would leave customers confused, and might leave them vulnerable to slamming - where a customer is switched to an alternative supplier without their knowledge.

BT appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, but in a ruling published yesterday the Tribunal found that BT was indeed in breach of the rules as set out under the Communications Act 2003.

"The dismissal of BT's appeal by the Tribunal vindicates our complaint and the regulator's original decision, and reinforces the need for continued regulatory vigilance in the UK telecommunications market," said Bill Allan, Chief Executive Officer of THUS.

Speaking to news site The Register, a spokesman for BT said, "We stopped using the 'save calls' in December 2003 we just wanted legal clarification."

BT is considering whether to appeal.

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