Clients of Melita and Go are still in the dark about any possible action by the Consumer and Competition Authority after the two telecoms companies arbitrarily raised fees, the Labour Party said today.

Spokesman Michael Farrugia criticised the Authority for being slow to react and to advise consumers in the two cases.

He recalled that several weeks ago, Melita subscribers had received a letter from the company telling them that unless the company was notified otherwise, their internet speed would be raised, and they would be required to pay accordingly.  The Authority had said that following complaints, it had started talks with the company. Since then nothing else was heard, Dr Farrugia said.

A similar case involved Go, which informed its clients that it had added two channels to their TV line-up and tariffs had been raised, despite the fact that some of the subscribers had fixed contracts with the company. Go left it up to its clients to get out of their contracts by the end of December and return their decoders, without any compensation being offered  In this case too, the Authority had said it was holding talks with Go, but nothing else resulted.

In both cases, Dr Farrugia said, the people had expected guidance from the Authority well before the deadlines imposed by the companies expired. The Authority, he said, was a mirror image of the government, which only granted lip service to consumer issues.