Postal Services Act 2011

51 Consumer protection conditions U.K.

(1) OFCOM may impose a consumer protection condition on—

(a) every postal operator, or

(b) every postal operator of a specified description.

(2) A consumer protection condition is a condition requiring the operator to do one or more of the following—

(a) to assume specified liability in respect of specified loss of or damage to specified postal packets,

(b) to establish and maintain procedures, standards and policies with respect to consumer protection matters, and

(c) to make payments relating to qualifying consumer expenses of the National Consumer Council or the Office of Fair Trading.

(3) The reference in subsection (2)(b) to consumer protection matters is to—

(a) the handling of complaints made to postal operators by users of their services,

(b) the resolution of disputes between postal operators and users of their services,

(c) the provision of remedies and redress in respect of matters that form the subject-matter of such complaints or disputes,

(d) the information that is to be made available by postal operators to users of their services about service standards and about the rights of those users, and

(e) anything else appearing to OFCOM to be necessary to secure effective protection for those users.

(4) The reference in subsection (2)(c) to qualifying consumer expenses of the National Consumer Council or the Office of Fair Trading is to—

(a) such proportion of the expenses of the National Consumer Council as the Secretary of State considers reasonable having regard to the functions exercisable by it in relation to users of postal services, and

(b) such proportion of the expenses of the Office of Fair Trading incurred in connection with its support of any public consumer advice scheme as the Secretary of State considers reasonable having regard to the functions under the scheme exercisable in relation to those users.

(5) In imposing a consumer protection condition, OFCOM must (so far as they consider appropriate) secure that—

(a) the procedures for the handling of complaints and the resolution of disputes are easy to use, transparent and effective and otherwise facilitate the settling of disputes fairly and promptly,

(b) users have the right to use those procedures free of charge, and

(c) if a postal operator contravenes a consumer protection condition, the operator follows such procedures as may be required by the condition.

(6) The Secretary of State may direct OFCOM to include provision within subsection (2)(c) in consumer protection conditions.

(7) In this section and section 52 any reference, in relation to postal operators, to users of their services is to users of any of the postal services provided by the operators.

(8) In this section “specified” means specified in the consumer protection condition.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 51 in force at 1.10.2011 by S.I. 2011/2329, art. 3