OCU meets with the National Commission for Markets and Competition

Once the new organization which emerged from the merger of the various regulatory agencies into one was fully in place, OCU met with representatives of the new National Commission for Markets and Competition to revive their relationship and seek new ways of collaboration.

At this meeting, energy was one of the main topics discussed, highlighting issues such as switching supplier and the invitation to participate in the new advisory body in charge of ensuring that the mechanism that enables this change works properly. Also within the area of energy, the question of the new energy bill and the offer from the CNMC (the National Commission for Markets and Competition) to cooperate in any campaign to help towards a better understanding of it.

During the meeting OCU reminded representatives of the regulatory body about the complaint filed last February over the lack of competition in energy markets and unfair trade practices by operators in these markets to transfer consumers from the regulated market to the free market without, in many cases, the consumer even being aware of it, as revealed by data from our own satisfaction surveys. The CNMC expressed interest in ending these practices, being at the moment involved in collecting information about such practices from the Autonomous Communities, the Spanish Agency for Consumer and Food Safety (AECOSAN) and consumer associations such as OCU.

In telecommunications concern became apparent over the evidence that mobile phone companies with cheap deals are not having the commercial success they expected, a concern that we share in OCU and that will lead to new avenues of cooperation with the CNMC in order to achieve more effective competition in the telecommunications market.
Finally both CNMC as well as OCU express our desire to develop a new framework agreement that serves to strengthen relations between consumers and regulator, natural allies in the struggle for the proper functioning of markets.