Fair Trading Commission Allows Opera Interactive Barbados Limited And Media Houses Off The Hook

It has been seven years since the establishment of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) in 2001 and the jury remains out on whether its role has been and effective one when dealing with the consumer rights of Barbadians. Barbadians were promised by the then government that the the FTC would be the agency which would redress many injustices which consumers were suffering at the hands of big business especially. In its defense, the FTC in its relatively short existence has had to preside through the difficult and complex period of the deregulation of the telecommunications industry. The BU household joins many Barbadians by holding the view that the FTC has fallen woefully short of its stated Mission Statement:

To be a transparent and accountable agency providing professional services to those whom we serve, thereby safeguarding the interest of consumers, promoting and encouraging fair competition and ensuring efficient regulated utility services.

To demonstrate our skepticism about whether the FTC has been effective in preserving the rights of the Barbadian consumer, we can illustrate this by revisiting the Opera Interactive Barbados Limited issue first raised by Adrian Loveridge on Barbados Free Press and BU in September 2007. The BU family may recall that there was the concern that the company Opera Telcom, which was proved to be the parent of Opera Interactive Barbados Limited, was responsible for running a game of chance in Barbados called Lucky Numbers. Adrian Loveridge at the time was able to point out to the public that after many weeks of running the game on CBC TV and the Nation newspaper, the company despite public calls HAS been unable to produce a list of winners. The story got even more murky when research exposed that Opera Telecom was and continues to be no stranger to telecommunications regulators in the United Kingdom. The company has racked up millions of dollars in fines for one violation or the other. (We apologize to the BU family for writing on this non-sexy topic which we believe o be very important given the role of the FTC as a watchdog agency)

Adrian Loveridge in his defense has exhausted all efforts to expose the matter to the relevant parties. He spoke to the General Manage of CBC and wrote to the Nation newspaper and the FTC. We should note that the consumer organization led by Malcom Taitt did nothing at the time to assist in exposing the scam which was being perpetrated on Barbadians. To demonstrate how the FTC has failed the PEOPLE of Barbados on this matter, here is a snippet of the response to the letter of complaint submitted by Adrian Loveridge last year: “Please note that unless there has been a contravention of the Consumer Protection Act the Commission does not have any authority to investigate. The Commission is unable to launch an investigation on the basis that there is a connection between the local company and the company in the UK.” After a rebuttal by Adrian to the initial response from the FTC, it changed its position on the matter and decided to communicate to Opera Interactive Barbados Limited. The less than satisfactory response from Opera Interactive Barbados Limited is a matter of public record for the world to see.

To the best of our knowledge the scam was never resolved to the satisfaction of Adrian Loveridge and the blogosphere. We have long concluded that the media houses i.e. CBC TV and the Nation newspaper took a position based on MONEY. They were being paid big money to advertise the game and that was their only interest. In fairness to the Nation newspaper they did published a ‘cover your ass’ statement. More importantly the FTC has failed the PEOPLE on this Opera Scam. The passive manner in which the FTC approached the Opera Scam complaint is a serious indictment and speaks to a civil service/bureaucratic culture. The role of such a key player in a small market like Barbados in a global space is critical. The FTC must support the competitive edge which a small country must have to survive by being nimble, by doing so it can stay relevant.

Recently a member of the BU family associated with The Scream Forum! out of the United Kingdom sent us a note which highlighted yet another transgression by Opera Telecom. The BU family should have a read because if it is one thing we can learn from our friends over at The Scream, they have taken the time to educate themselves about how these large telecommunication companies rip-off consumers. To go further we highly recommend this Website to the people over at the FTC, members of The Scream have been diligent by exposing many of the scams operated by the telecommunications companies.

Here is the snippet we promised:

A few months ago, I began to receive unsolicited text messages from an entertainment service-provider. In the beginning, in my ignorance, I didn’t think anything of it, until I realised that they were charging me money for the so-called privilege. My phone bill is hefty enough every month, but over a four-month period, these premium messages where hiking it up even further.

So, essentially, I was paying for a ’service’ that I neither asked for nor wanted. I never subscribed and I had no existing relationship with the sellers. Yet for some bizarre and unexplained reason they could access my personal space against my will. It pains me to refer to these companies as ’service providers’, given that they’re about as much use as a lamp without a bulb.

Hardly fair is it? Surely it breaches Data Protection Regulations? At best, it’s an invasion of privacy; at worst, it’s fraud. You would think, and indeed hope, that in this day and age there’s a law against such practice. Personally, what I found most disconcerting about the sordid business was how they managed to obtain my number. Thankfully, I was shown by a friend who endured a six-month battle with these rip-off merchants how to unsubscribe before it got out of control, which is something that could have easily happened, because it seems that the longer you leave it without unsubscribing, the more frequently the messages arrive.

Emma O’Hara from Dublin can vouch for that. In March of this year, she began to receive these ’service messages’. “I hadn’t a clue where they were coming from and what it was about. I phoned O2. They explained and sent an email to the company asking them to stop … I think people should be alerted to this — it’s scandalous,” Emma says firmly, adding, “I started getting them in March and because I was an eejit and didn’t contest it, they sent me a load in May. They were obviously chancing their arm big time.”

A company called Opera Telecom was bombarding Emma with these expensive messages. The cost of her premium charges for the month of May alone was €52.80. Emma contacted the source of her distress in an attempt to establish how they obtained her personal mobile number. It transpired that Opera Telecom obtained it in 2004 when Emma sent a text to a five-digit number to support a specific charity which was being represented on a television show.

Source: The Scream

This has been a long read we know. The FTC’s role is critical as transnational companies spawn our market as a result of the bridge created by globalization and all that it brings. The current lazy and blinkered approach to regulatory tasks by the FTC will not cut it. International companies will bring their sophisticated approaches which have been honed by operating in more mature markets. Will closure ever be brought to the matter of Opera Interactive Barbados Limited?