Crackdown on IT bad boys

Date: 19/12/02

By Peter Chapman

ERKKI Liikanen, the commissioner for enterprise and information society policy, has announced a crackdown on member states failing to apply EU laws in the telecoms and IT sectors.

He sent two warning letters to Portugal and one apiece to Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Finland in a salvo that could lead to action in the European Court of Justice if the countries fail to make amends.

Portugal, France, Greece and Italy were told they must ensure that phone books list all numbers - including mobiles - unless a customer wants to go "ex-directory". Directory enquiry services must also be available to all.

Meanwhile, Liikanen accused Germany of failing to correctly implement a law that allows telephone customers to easily switch to operators offering cheaper calls.

Customers must dial a long number if they want to access the cheaper services instead of being able to programme their phones to do this automatically. This hands the biggest operator Deutsche Telekom an unfair advantage.

The warnings followed the launch last week of the Commission's latest "implementation report" on EU telecoms legislation.

In the IT sector, Liikanen issued a legal warning to Portugal, the Netherlands and Finland for their failure to apply a directive on "electronic signatures", a set of identification numbers which should have the same legal status for contracts as traditionally written signatures.

• Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has dropped an investigation into the market for leased telephone lines - used by corporate users - after phone companies dropped their high prices.

Erkki Liikanen, the Commissioner for enterprise and information society policy, has announced a crackdown on Member States failing to apply EU laws in the telecoms and IT sectors.