Sky must provide end of contract and alternative tariff info to customers
Ann O'Loughlin
Sky Ireland Ltd is required to comply with EU regulations requiring that customers must be informed their contracts are about to end and about alternative tariffs, the High Court has ruled.
Ms Justice Eileen Roberts found that the communications regulator, Comreg, was entitled to orders requiring the company to end its practice of automatically renewing customers' contracts without first giving them that information.
Comreg claimed Sky is in breach of the EU regulations by failing to provide consumers with "best tariff advice" in relation to all its services - TV, broadband and mobile - before the contracts are automatically prolonged. Sky is the only one of the five big providers refusing to do so, Comreg said.
Sky disputed Comreg's interpretation of the relevant legal provisions and said they only apply to contracts with a fixed duration. Its customers' contracts are subscription contracts of indeterminate duration, it said.
The regulations, Sky argued, are designed to address the potential harm of consumers getting automatically prolonged in the contract for a second term without their knowledge. This harm did not arise in relation to Sky customers as its contracts do not follow this type of model in Ireland, it argues.
Comreg said customers should be afforded an opportunity of making an informed decision to stay with their current provider on the same or different package or to switch to a new provider.
This was important particularly as customers may be losing discounts and therefore incurring higher prices and, in the case of Sky customers, this could include bundled TV, broadband and telephone services.
Comreg also said Sky's UK arm, Sky UK Ltd, has taken a different position to its Irish counterpart and provides best tariff information to its customers. This followed enforcement action against Sky UK by the UK watchdog, Ofcom, in 2021 which concluded in Ofcom's favour.
In a judgment, Ms Justice Roberts was satisfied that Sky is required to comply with Regulation 89(6)of the European Union (Electronic Communications Code) Regulations 2022.
Accordingly, she said Sky must provide its customers with the relevant information on the expiry of the customers’ relevant minimum periods of commitment,as set out in their contracts, and best tariff advice annually thereafter.
As it was accepted that this information is not being provided by Sky to its customers, she granted ComReg’s application and she listed the case to later this month for the making of final orders and costs.
