National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

The Administrative Board of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) approved a new version of the Regulations (doc. in state language) on Dispute Resolution Procedure in Electronic Communications, which aims at simplifying and adjusting the extrajudicial dispute examination procedure by ANRCETI to the legal framework. Regulation was registered by the Ministry of Justice and took effect on Friday, December 13, 2013, being published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova.

The regulation establishes the procedure of resolving disputes between parties by ANRCETI, within its competence. The regulator considers disputes between (1) providers in connection with the obligations imposed by the Law on Electronic Communications and ANRCETI regulations, where disputes cannot be resolved independently by the Parties, and (2) between providers and end users of public electronic communications services, which were generated by the enforcement of the Law on Electronic Communications, and refer to the contractual conditions (clauses) with regards to the rights established by this law and/or fulfillment of these terms (clauses), where disputes were not settled amiably by the parties, according to the procedure established in the contracts.

In the situations described above, either party may submit to ANRCETI, personally or by representative, a complaint requesting dispute resolution. Where there is a complaint on a dispute between providers (which meets the form requirements, as provided by the Regulations), ANRCETI creates, by an order of the Director, the Dispute Resolution Commission empowered to perform all the necessary procedures to solve the case. If the Commission finds that the complainant’s requirements are justified, ANRCETI will take steps to restore the legitimate rights and interests of the complainant by issuing a binding Board decision. This decision will be issued within one month from the date ANRCETI received the complaint. This timeframe may be extended, at the proposal of the Dispute Resolution Commission, by maximum one month. The decision may be suspended or canceled by another ANRCETI decision or by a court ruling.

In disputes between providers and end-users of public electronic communications services that could not be settled amiably, the latter can apply to ANRCETI to resolve these disputes, in accordance with the procedure of preliminary settlement of complaints, provided by the signed contracts. After registering the complaint, ANRCETI Director shall designate the staff in charge of examining and solving it. To verify the facts presented in the complaint, ANRCETI Director may order a unplanned inspection of the electronic communications service provider. Where the parties fail to amiably resolve the dispute, within one month from the date ANRCETI received the complaints, ANRCETI will provide the regulator’s properly motivated opinion on how to resolve the dispute.

The procedure of dispute resolution between providers of electronic communications networks and services and those between providers and end users by ANRCETI is voluntary and free of charge. ANRCETI believes that improving the mechanism for extrajudicial settlement of disputes will help to maintain the balance between the high level of end user protection and competitiveness of providers operating on the electronic communications market.

December 17, 2013