Do telecommunications carriers / CSPs need to comply with Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code?

Comply with Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code. 1/2022) is an industry code on the ACMA's register of telco industry codes. It protects customers of mobile, landline and internet services, including NBN, and sets rules on how providers communicate and deal with customers, what they may say in advertising and sales information, billing and disputes, the ways customers can pay, credit assessment for new customers and helping customers switch providers.

Trigger: Supplying telecommunications products or services to consumers in Australia.

Rules Mate runs its applicability engine across 9 business structures and 6 size bands for each of the 35 industries it maps. For 34 of those industries the answer for "Comply with Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code" is no. Telecommunications carriers / CSPs is one of the 1 where the answer is different: yes.

The deciding fact for telecommunications carriers / CSPs: Industry: Telecommunications carriers / CSPs.

About the industry: Carriers and carriage service providers under the Telecommunications Act.

Compare a professional services (general) business with 6–19 employees structured as a Pty Ltd company: the obligation does not apply (Requires industry: Telecommunications carriers / CSPs).

Each cell is the engine's outcome for a business in telecommunications carriers / csps with that structure and size, assuming it sells to consumers and small businesses and holds customer contact details. "Check" means the obligation turns on a fact the industry does not settle.

When due

Continuously in every customer interaction; the compliance attestation documents are lodged annually under Chapter 9 of the code.

Evidence to keep

Annual compliance attestation and supporting documents; registration with Communications Alliance; advertising and sales information records; credit assessment records; billing, payment-method and complaint-handling procedures and registers; switching and transfer consent records.

Maximum penalty

The ACMA can issue a formal warning or a direction to comply with the code; contravening a direction breaches section 121(2) of the Telecommunications Act 1997, a civil penalty provision (up to $250,000 per contravention for a body corporate, $50,000 for others: s 570(3)(b), (4)(b)), and can attract an infringement notice or court proceedings. Telstra paid an infringement notice of $3,010,320 after breaching a direction to comply with the TCP Code

Regulator

ACMA

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth (national)

• Comply with Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) for standard phone services: Yes
• Comply with the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMs Industry Code: Yes
• Telco data retention — 2 years (Part 5-1A Telecommunications Act): Yes
• Customer Service Guarantee (CSG): Yes