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The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, recommended to the Government the prohibition of television contests that use higher cost telephone numbers to protect the elderly and other vulnerable groups, it was announced this Thursday.
In a recommendation addressed to the Secretary of State for Commerce, Services and Consumer Protection, João Torres, Maria Lúcia Amaral maintains that the holding of contests in which television stations use, in particular, “telephone lines in the range 760 and 761 , it must be unfeasible. ” “.
“Greater consumer protection is all the more important because, due to the current pandemic caused by Covid-19, confinement provides greater availability for people to participate in this type of competition,” he emphasizes.
The text of the recommendation to the Government was disseminated by the Portuguese Association of Consumer Law (apDC), based in Coimbra, chaired by the jurist and university professor Mário Frota.
In addition to “several individual citizens”, the apDC also requested the intervention of the Ombudsman’s Office, since it understands “that television contests that call for telephone calls with prefixes 760 and 761 are made in violation of consumer rights, in particularly the most vulnerable groups “.
Maria Lúcia Amaral also suggests “reviewing the legal control regime applicable to knowledge, hobby or other contests, organized by newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations, and advertising contests for the promotion of goods or services, with a view to for clarification and to avoid negative or positive conflicts of competence “.
A third and final proposal by the Ombudsman points to “the prohibition of the use of debit cards as prizes in this type of contest.”
In statements to the Lusa agency, the apDC president welcomed the initiative of the Ombudsman, given the “continuous harassment of people immobilized at home, in a situation of great psychological and social vulnerability.”
“This is intoxicating and addictive,” said Mário Frota about television contests that use value-added calls, a practice that, in his opinion, “mainly attacks the elderly and leads them to allow themselves to be manipulated” in front of the “charisma of many “. of presenters “.
“Consumers – especially the most vulnerable people, such as children, the elderly and the most economically disadvantaged citizens – are unprotected in relation to television contests that call for telephone calls with prefixes 760 and 761”, confirms the Provider. of Justice.
In the recommendation to the Government, signed on October 19 and now released by apDC, Maria Lúcia Amaral also considers that “the holding of contests that call for telephone calls using numbers with a prefix 760 and 761, which are numbers with a special increased rate, questions compliance with the Gaming Law “.
