{"id":35507,"date":"2014-12-15T17:09:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T09:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35507"},"modified":"2014-12-15T17:20:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T09:20:49","slug":"doj-cautions-telcos-on-internet-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/15\/doj-cautions-telcos-on-internet-services\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ cautions telcos on internet services"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13789\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13789\" style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DOJ.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13789\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DOJ.jpg\" alt=\"Department of Justice \/ Wikipedia Photo\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13789\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Department of Justice \/ Wikipedia Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA \u2013 The Department of Justice (DOJ) discouraged telecommunications companies from practicing false advertising \u00a0otherwise they will be facing the risk of being penalized.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, DOJ noted that the \u201cfair use policy\u201d (FUP) imposed to the subscribers by Internet service providers (ISPs) \u201cis inconsistent\u201d with Consumer Act\u2019s provisions that reprimand misleading trade practices and advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe contention here is simple: \u2018Unlimited\u2019 means unlimited,\u201d said the DOJ said in its advisory to telecommunications firms last December 9.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Secretary de Lima said, \u201cWhile there is nothing wrong with advertisements and promotions, what is promised must be delivered. Our law requires not only truth in advertising, but also fairness in packaging and consistency in the provision of the service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to DOJ, the FUP noted that Internet connection is \u201cthrottled when usage reaches a certain volume of data bits.\u201d This result to slowing down of the Internet once a subscriber, who availed of unlimited data service, reached the mandated cap for every user.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnlimited data is like the unlimited rice or buffet concept. Restaurants cannot offer an \u2018eat all you can\u2019 promo and when a customer eats more than the average person, actually stop [the customer] and not honor the commitment,\u201d said Assistant Secretary Geronimo Sy, chief of the DOJ Office for Competition.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, DOJ asked for the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Telecommunications Commission \u201cto monitor and penalize noncompliant telcos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe imposition of data throttling on unlimited Internet could also be regarded as a violation of the provisions prohibiting false, misleading or deceptive advertisements, hence deemed punishable in accordance with law,\u201d the DOJ stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Misleading business practice is a violation of the Consumer Act. Violators risk facing penalties including a fine of between P500 and P20,000, and imprisonment of between three months and two years, or both.<\/p>\n<p>The imposition of data throttling is a possible violation of the Consumer Act because the latter prohibits companies from false, misleading, or deceptive advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>Administrative fines of between P500 and P300,000 and an additional P1,000 fine for each day of continuing disobedience may also be slapped against the violating party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA \u2013 The Department of Justice (DOJ) discouraged telecommunications companies from practicing false advertising \u00a0otherwise they will be facing the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":13789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}