French senator seeks to strengthen protection for TV subscribers

French senator Catherine Procaccia has lodged a proposal for a new law to offer stronger consumer protection to subscribers of TV services.

The opposition UMP senator wants to close a loophole in a 2008 law that mandates service providers with renewable contracts to send subscribers a written notice of impending renewals between three and one month before the renewal date, but which exempts service providers that provide audiovisual services as part of their subscriptions. The latter have been able to comply with the law by only sending a monthly magazine to TV customers with the date of the automatic contract renewal on the cover.  The Procaccia proposal would determine a more precise form of information to be supplied to consumers.

A second proposal would strengthen the rights of TV subscribers to end their contracts after one year, on a model already applicable to mobile phone contracts.