Following ANCOM’s verifications, two operators were sanctioned by fine amounting to RON 180,000 for breaches in the enforcement of the Roam like at home Regulation.

Vodafone was fined RON 30,000 for failure to notify the users on amendments to contract provisions (respectively the General Terms and Provisions on using prepaid services) regarding the conditions of providing the roaming service, this operator remedying the identified breaches before the 90 days deadline. 

Furthermore, Orange and Vodafone were fined RON 50,000 each, for failure to include a fair use policy in the contracts concluded with subscription-based mobile telephony users. Vodafone was also fined RON 50,000 for failure to include the fair use policy in the General Terms and Conditions on using prepaid cards.

 

 

Since the entry into force of the Roam like at home Regulation, the Authority has received almost 300 complaints on its enforcement, from the electronic communications users in Romania. Approximately 100 of them concerned the operator’s failure to inform the users on including the fair use policy provisions in the contracts concluded with them, 90 regarded the implementation of a fair use policy in accordance with the Roam like at home Regulation, and 57 complaints referred to the sale of tariff plans without included roaming.

Other users complained about their provider’s failure to notify them in advance on levying roaming surcharges, on the existence of data roaming caps and also about the former’s failure to inform them on the manner of applying data roaming caps.

 

 

Telephony operators have the obligation to fully apply the provisions of the EU Regulation Roam like at home. This Regulation provides that minutes, SMS, and data consumed while roaming in the European Economic Area (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) should be deducted from the included domestic resources.Upon reaching the limit of the domestic resources, consumption will be charged like at home, in Romania, under off-net regime and subject to a fair use policy. 

European regulations in force do not forbid the operators to offer tariff plans (subscriptions/prepaid cards/add-ons) without access to roaming services. Such tariff plans are designed for those who would benefit from domestic resources at advantageous prices rather than use mobile telephony services while traveling abroad.

According to the European regulations in force, clear limits are in place as regards fair use policy for data roaming, in order to prevent abusive use, and such limits may be lower or higher than the domestic resources included in a subscription/add-on, based on the price of the respective subscription/add-on.

Operators have the obligation to inform electronic communications services users on their respective fair use policies, on the data roaming caps they apply or on the amendments they bring to their contracts by including new terms regarding service provision. Thorough information on the provisions of the Roam like at home Regulation, as well as on the users’ and the operators’ rights and obligations are available, in Romanian, here.