Act on the Amendment of Provisions of the Telecommunications Act
Gesetz zur Änderung telekommunikationsrechtlicher Vorschriften (TelekRÄndG)

The Act on the Amendment of Provisions of the Telecommunications Act, most of which came into force on 24 February 2007, includes various regulations on the improvement of youth welfare in the tele-communications sector. All in all, transparency is improved, which includes the introduction of a so-called handshake process: in future, before the conclusion of subscription contracts, the providers of ab-breviated dialling services must notify the consumers of the contract conditions (price, etc.) in a text message. Not until the consumers have confirmed this does the contract come into force. This is an amend-ment that particularly benefits young consumers, as they are now better protected when ordering ringtones, some of which are part of a subscription.

The consumer can also demand the sending of a notification if the payment entitlements from subscription contracts for abbreviated dialling services exceed EUR 20 in the respective month. Furthermore, the obligation of price notification has been expanded. Previously, this was only valid for 0190 or 0900 telephone numbers and is now also obligatory for 0137 telephone numbers (so-called televote telephone numbers) and the connection through an information service. The option that has now been introduced – to block reverse-charge calls (entry in a blocked list) – particularly protects the young consumers from having to pay for incoming calls.