Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revised the Telecommunication Consumer Protection Regulations (2009) in order to maximise consumer interests; the new regulation has put a ban on the prize schemes opted by the operators and illegal marketers.
According to the new regulation, PTA should be informed 10 days prior from the launch of any commercial scheme. It states:
The operators are now limited to offer incentives like air time etc rather than lucky draws for cars, gold or cash etc. Masking of numbers, which was being used by illegal marketers, and auto opt-in schemes have been disallowed, according to the new regulation.
PTA has the authority to ban or impose a sanction on any commercial activity or promotional telecommunication scheme in accordance with the interest of the consumers. Moreover, the operators will be obligated to provide the PTA, key features, and titles for the commercial schemes and activities.
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The operators are also supposed to keep a complete check and balance over the Act, Rules, Regulations and all other laws of Pakistan before carrying out the commercial launch.
The operators are duty-bound to inform PTA about promotions, incentives, discount, benchmarks/parameters, qualifying consumers/winners, place and date of selection of winners prior to the launch. The law states:
Operators are allowed to offer incentives in the shape of service-related benefit, free or additional services and discounts on services or features.
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Moreover, the law stated that any telecom commercial scheme in the print media should be published in at least one national or local language newspaper as well as on the licensed website of the operator in order to avoid any discrimination.
As per the new regulations, PTA looks forward to achieving protection from unwanted and deceitful activities.
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