Vodafone Hutchison Australia is taking the ACCC to the Federal Court over its recent draft decision not to declare domestic mobile roaming, claiming that the review process is flawed.
VHA says the domestic mobile roaming inquiry by the competition watchdog is an opportunity to do better for regional Australia, but if domestic roaming is not declared, “consumers will be denied the benefits of increased coverage, competition and choice”.
In early May, the ACCC made a draft decision not to declare wholesale mobile roaming services, saying there is insufficient evidence that such a declaration will improve competition amongst telcos.
“We feel so strongly about the impact on consumers, we are taking legal action as we believe the inquiry process which produced the draft decision was flawed,” the company says in a statement on its website.
The move by VHA sees the telco file judicial review proceedings, asking the Federal Court to review the ACCC’s inquiry process “on behalf of all Australian mobile customers”.
{loadposition peter}“We do not believe the process has been carried out properly because a specific domestic roaming service has not been defined by the ACCC. The process is failing consumers because it is too vague,” VHA says.
And according to VHA, the decision on domestic roaming is too important to regional Australia for the inquiry to continue in a flawed way.