Community regulators for broadcasting
Considering the ever growing technological convergence between telecommunications and broadcasting a cooperation agreement between the federal and regional authorities concerned has been concluded.
By virtue of this cooperation agreement, the Institute will have to work together with its regulatory opposite numbers in the three Communities:
- the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Council for the Media), for the Flemish Community;
- the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (High Council for Broadcasting), for the French Community;
- the Medienrat (Media Council ), for the German-speaking Community.
Belgian Competition Authority
The Act of 17 January 2003 on the appeals and the settling of lawsuits arising from the Act of 17 January 2003 on the status of the regulator of the Belgian postal and telecommunications sectors entrusted the Belgian Competition Authority with the duty of settling certain types of lawsuits between operators, both in the field of electronic communications and in the postal sector. In order to investigate these cases, the Institute delegates a representative to assist the officers of the competition authority with their work.
The Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications confers a role to the Belgian Competition Authority in the preparation of decisions that are incumbent on the Institute in the context of the market analyses that are imposed by the new European regulatory framework. Depending on the case, the opinion rendered by the Belgian Competition Authority may be binding or not for the Institute.
Mediation services
When the liberalisation of the electronic communications market was launched in the first half of the nineties, a special body – an ombudsman's office – was set up in order to deal with complaints from consumers on operators in the sector. This office’s independence is guaranteed by law. The Institute’s role is limited to providing its management with staff.
The more recent gradual liberalisation of the postal sector sparked the plan of extending the competence of the mediation service for the postal sector to include all market players, modelled on its counterpart for the telecommunications sector.