Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT 1997 - SECT 113

  (1)   This section sets out examples of matters that may be dealt with by industry codes and industry standards.

  (2)   The applicability of a particular example will depend on which section of the telecommunications industry, the telemarketing industry or the fax marketing industry is involved.

  (3)   The examples are as follows:

  (a)   telling customers about:

  (i)   goods or services on offer; and

  (ii)   the prices of those goods or services; and

  (iii)   the other terms and conditions on which those goods or services are offered;

  (b)   giving customers information about performance indicators customers can use to evaluate the quality of services;

  (c)   regular reporting to customers about performance against those performance indicators;

  (d)   the internal handling of customer complaints;

  (e)   reporting about customer complaints;

  (f)   privacy and, in particular:

  (i)   the protection of personal information; and

  (ii)   the intrusive use of telecommunications by carriers or service providers; and

  (iii)   the monitoring or recording of communications; and

  (iv)   calling number display; and

  (v)   the provision of directory products and services;

  (g)   the "churning" of customers;

  (h)   security deposits given by customers;

  (i)   debt collection practices;

  (j)   customer credit practices;

  (k)   disconnection of customers;

  (l)   ensuring that customers have an informed basis on which to enter into agreements of a kind mentioned in paragraph   22(2)(d) or (e) or (4)(a) (which deal with boundaries of telecommunications networks);

  (m)   the quality of standard telephone services;

  (n)   the accuracy of billing of customers of carriage service providers in relation to the supply of standard telephone services;

  (o)   the timeliness and comprehensibility of bills;

  (p)   the procedures to be followed in order to generate standard billing reports to assist in the investigation of customer complaints about bills;

  (pa)   the design features of:

  (i)   optical fibre lines; or

  (ii)   facilities used, or for use, in or in connection with optical fibre lines;

  (pb)   performance requirements to be met by:

  (i)   optical fibre lines; or

  (ii)   facilities used, or for use, in or in connection with optical fibre lines;

  (pc)   the characteristics of carriage services supplied using optical fibre lines;

  (pd)   performance requirements to be met by carriage services supplied using optical fibre lines;

  (q)   procedures to be followed by:

  (i)   internet service providers; and

  (ii)   electronic messaging service providers;

    in dealing with unsolicited commercial electronic messages (including procedures relating to the provision or use of regularly updated software for filtering unsolicited commercial electronic messages);

  (r)   giving customers information about the availability, use and appropriate application of software for filtering unsolicited commercial electronic messages;

  (s)   action to be taken to assist in the development and evaluation of software for filtering unsolicited commercial electronic messages;

  (t)   action to be taken in order to minimise or prevent the sending or delivery of unsolicited commercial electronic messages, including:

  (i)   the configuration of servers so as to minimise or prevent the sending or delivery of unsolicited commercial electronic messages; and

  (ii)   the shutdown of open relay servers;

  (u)   action to be taken to ensure responsible practices in relation to the use of commercial electronic messages to market, advertise or promote goods or services to individuals who are under 18 years of age;

  (v)   procedures to be followed in relation to the giving of consent by relevant electronic account - holders (within the meaning of the Spam Act 2003 ) to the sending of commercial electronic messages;

  (w)   record - keeping practices to be followed in relation to telemarketing calls made or attempted to be made;

  (x)   action to be taken to limit the total number of telemarketing calls attempted to be made, by a particular participant in a section of the telemarketing industry, during a particular period, where the recipient answers the attempted call, but the attempted call does not have any content;

  (y)   action to be taken to limit the total number of telemarketing calls made, or attempted to be made, by a particular participant in a section of the telemarketing industry, during a particular period to a particular Australian number;

  (z)   record - keeping practices to be followed in relation to marketing faxes sent or attempted to be sent;

  (za)   action to be taken to limit the total number of marketing faxes sent or attempted to be sent, by a particular participant in a section of the fax marketing industry, during a particular period to a particular Australian number.