호주 통신시장에서의 소비자 보호

Consumer Protection in Telecommunication Industry of Australia Ryu, Kwon Hong There is important physical difference in Telecommunication industry between Korea and Australia. First one is the size of territory. That of Australia is 77 times bigger than that of South Korea. Moreover, the population of Australia, with over 21 Million, is 2 times smaller than that of Korea. These differences has deep implication in understanding Telecommunication industry in Australia and finding what is their policy for consumer protection. With long history for transforming a monopolistic and government owned system into competitive one, consumer protection policy in Telecommunication has developed unique system. There are two phase of system, external and internal. While ACCC and ACMA are the representatives of external organizations for consumer protection, TIO and CAL are internal organizations. As the industry specific external organization, ACMA has the authority over the registration of Codes and Standards, implementing of Universal Service, and Investigation. ACCC which is the same as the FTC in Korea is in charge of executing the general competition policy and Telecommunication industry specific competition policy, including interconnection and access regime, and anti-competitive conduct, under Trade Practices Act 1974. On top of that, ACCC has the authority over the policy of Pre-selection, Number Portability, Arbitration, and so on under Telecommunication Act 1997. As the practical organization for consumer protection, TIO has dealt with the complaints of Telecommunication consumer. Consumer can complain to TIO within 12 months after cognizing of problem and the service provider has to be given the opportunity to deal with the case before going to TIO. The complaints are dealt with separately according to the degree of the cases which are from 1 to 4. The most important characteristic of TIO system is that TIO can make binding decision by which the service provider accused by the consumer has to pay damages if the amount of complaint is not over AU $10,000. CAL is the organization formed by the industry players, including service providers, vendors, consultants and suppliers, for stipulating the Codes and Standards. The main point in Telecommunication industry comsumer protection in Australia when comparing to that of Korea is that the industry itself is the prime and first entity. So, the external organization such as ACMA and ACCC is acting as the supervisor and approaching consumer protection issue from the view of policy executor.