Authority takes stock – In 2022, most complaints were about these providers

“As has already been established in recent years, these providers are very unremarkable in arbitrage. Also far behind is HD Austria with 39 procedures and Sky with 38 procedures,” said RTR in a broadcast. The average value contested in the arbitration proceedings was 414 euros in 2022. The disputes committee sees the reasons for the decrease in the disputed amount for flat-rate products, which no longer lead to excessive bills, and on the provider’s side also in adjustments to customer management and billing systems.

Arbitration cases have been declining for years
The fact that arbitration cases have been steadily declining for several years and that there are fewer and fewer arbitrations involving large amounts of money is giving the telecommunications industry good numbers, said Klaus M. Steinmaurer, director of RTR for the Telecommunication and Postal Division, about the report presented on Tuesday. Numbers.

The cooperation with the providers and their willingness to reach an agreement should be assessed as positive. “Amicable solutions were found in 76 percent of the cases,” Steinmaurer calculated. But it didn’t always go smoothly. “Unfortunately, there was a black sheep among the providers who, despite repeated requests from us, recently shirked their obligation to cooperate. Now this provider has been sentenced to an administrative fine by the telecommunications agency,” said the head of the authorities.

Fewer complaints about misuse of telephone numbers
The total number of complaints to the Number Abuse Reporting Center fell by almost 30 percent to 39,588 in 2022. “Last year in particular, scam texts and ping calls were less of an issue, but scam calls like police calls, wine inquiries or scam calls were. They accounted for 72 percent of all complaints registered,” Steinmaurer explains, recommending, “Even if the number of reports received has decreased, caution and a healthy distrust are warranted in the case of dubious text messages and unknown calls.” .

The number of media settlements increased from 88 cases to 127 cases, but would still be at a low level. “The reason for the increase is an online portal where automated arbitration requests were submitted. However, many of these applications lacked essential procedural requirements, so they had to be rejected, but still had to be taken into account in the arbitration statistics,” the authority emphasizes.

Positive balance also with parcel deliverers
RTR also has a positive balance for the post for 2022. There were fewer arbitration proceedings and fewer complaints about reception than last year. “We registered a total of 396 procedures in 2022, which is 238 procedures or 38 percent fewer procedures than in 2021,” Steinmaurer sums up. Most proceedings in 2022 were for the market leader, Österreichische Post (291), followed by DPD (42) and Hermes (25).

“Especially the development in the ‘Package’ complaint category had a positive effect on the annual post-arbitration statistics. We registered only 308 procedures in this category in 2022, after 527 procedures in 2021. The contents of the procedures were mainly delivery problems and damage to packages,” Steinmaurer explains.

Since the law only provides for an arbitration procedure between the sender and the postal service provider, RTR has been offering an online platform for postal receipt complaints since March 2021. “Here too, compared to the short year of 2021, we were able to observe a decrease in the number of complaints by 2022, namely by about seven percent to 7166. In 4643 complaints, it was stated that the bell did not ring during the delivery, in 3282 complaints though. complained that the shipment was delivered directly to the pick-up shop,” Steinmaurer sums up the main points of criticism.