Nationalist MP David Agius has accused TV service providers Go and Melita of taking customers “for a ride” by broadcasting Living TV and Comedy Central without having the rights to do so.
Mr Agius, who earlier this year campaigned unsuccessfully to enable Maltese viewers to watch English, Italian and European football without having to subscribe to both providers, said this incident was an “added insult to the consumers”.
Go and Melita recently said they had been forced to discontinue their transmissions of the popular British channels because of rights issues. But a spokesman for Living TV said the station could never have been broadcast because Go and Melita did not have any of the necessary permissions or authorisations to include the station in their packages.
“People are being taken for a ride by these two companies and we as politicians have to take the necessary decisions to strengthen the positions of consumers. I hope the Consumers Bill in Parliament will help fill some of these loopholes.”
Mr Aguis holds that if customers are paying for 50 or so channels, the providers should not be able to change them unless they give their clients adequate compensation. It is no excuse, he argues, for the companies to say they have been “forced” to remove the stations by the owners of the channels themselves.
“If my wife forces me to end a contract it does not mean I can get away with it,” he said.
He added that consumers have remained in the dark about whether there are other stations being broadcast illegally since this information was deemed private and commercial.
“We need a consumer’s division with teeth, to fight for the consumers. Obviously there is a question of balance and companies must be able to make a profit. But not by taking advantage of their customers.”
He said it would help if there were more players in the market since competition would jog these companies into being more conscientious.
However, the Malta Communications Authority told The Times the law “does not foresee the granting of compensation in such cases”, even though it said subscribers could seek redress before the Consumer Claims Tribunal.
The MCA said operators who decide to change any terms or conditions of service are obliged to notify subscribers 30 days before the change takes effect, giving customers the right to withdraw from the contract during this period without incurring any penalties.
However, this would not apply in cases of “force majeure”. “In this case the authority considers that this provision did not apply...as the change was not instigated by the service providers themselves.”
Go was the first provider to announce the discontinuing of both stations, while Melita had said negotiations were ongoing. Melita later said it would remove the stations in the second week of January but Living TV disappeared abruptly last Monday.
No replies have yet been forthcoming from the Consumer Division or the Ministry of Finance, responsible for the Copyright Board. Both TV service providers have failed to respond to the claim that they have been broadcasting the stations illegally for years and have also refused to comment on calls for compensation by irate customers.