Monday, September 1, 2003, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications launched for public consultation the project for the Decision on the Establishment of the Procedure for the Resolution of Disputes within the Competence of National Regulatory Authority for Communications. This decision regulates the preliminary administrative-legal procedure for the resolution of disputes between the providers of electronic communications services or networks or between the postal services providers within the competence of ANRC.
According to the provisions under art.31 paragraph(6) of the Government Ordinance no.31/2002 on the postal services, approved with additions and amendments, by Law no.642/2002 and under art.36 of the Law no.304/2003 on the Universal Service and the users’ rights regarding the electronic communications networks and services, the draft decision regulates also the mediation procedure for disputes between the users and postal services providers, the end-users and the providers of electronic communications networks or services, respectively.
In the case of a dispute between the providers of electronic communications networks or services or postal services relating to the obligations placed upon them according to the legislation within the electronic communications and postal services sector, the interested party is bound to file a request to ANRC for settling the dispute. In the case of a dispute between users and a postal services providers or between end-users and providers of electronic communications networks or services the interested parties have the right to ask ANRC to mediate the dispute.
In both cases, ANRC shall be informed through a written request and shall mandatory comprise the identification data of the parties involved in the dispute, the object of the dispute, the facts of the dispute, legal grounds, the manner in which the plaintiff is affected by the dispute, the description of the efforts made by the parties in order to amicably settle the dispute, the solution or the measures suggested by the plaintiff for the settlement of the dispute, the agreed procedure for the settlement of the dispute, signature and stamp, as the case may be. After the request is registered, depending on the nature and complexity of the dispute, the ANRC President shall designate a Commission responsible with its settlement. This commission shall initiate a preliminary analysis of the documents provided by the parties and shall conduct the dispute settlement procedure.
The mediation procedure cannot exceed the period of 30 days from the date ANRC was informed. In case of the disputes between the providers of electronic communications networks or services or between the postal services providers, if the parties do not reach any agreement before this deadline, the dispute shall be settled though contentious procedure. During the mediation procedure, the parties can request the Commission to settle the dispute through contentious procedure, all the documents and papers of the file involved in the process until that moment remaining to the winner.
In case of the disputes between users and postal services providers or between end-users and providers of electronic communications networks and services, if an agreement is not reached before the deadline the parties will be to address the competent judicial body in order to settle the dispute.
In case the mediation settles amicably the dispute, the parties shall conclude a transaction. The transaction shall be elaborated in written, in many copies, one for each party and one for ANRC. In order to settle a dispute through contentious procedure the ANRC President issues a decision mandatory for the parties, that will be communicated to them and published on the ANRC website, observing the legal provisions referring to keeping the confidentiality. This Decision may be appealed in front of the Court of Appeal Bucharest, Administrative and Contentious Section, in 30 days from its communication, without going through all the steps of the preliminary procedure stipulated under art.5 of the Law on Administrative Contentious no.29/1990, with the previous amendments.
The public consultation procedure for the project for the Decision on the Establishment of the Procedure for the Resolution of Disputes within the Competence of National Regulatory Authority for Communications ends on September 30, 2003. We remind to those interested that the comments to this project can be sent by mail to the ANRC headquarters (14 Libertatii Blvd, Bucharest, sector 25) or can be submitted directly to the ANRC registration desk or to the territorial office within the county the interested party lives in. The comments may be sent by fax at 021/307.54.02 or by e-mail at the consultare@anrc.ro address.
The electronic version of the document that launches the preliminary public consultation may be found on the ANRC Internet page.