Re:Apple removes Fortnite from App Store after Epic attempts...
by tialaramex on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:02PM
(#24149091)
But that same complained about phenomenon applies in the UK. Regulators do put at least some effort into trying to disrupt it but it's definitely there.
Example: A few years ago it was legal in the UK to advertise the price of broadband excluding the fee for "landline rental". This recurring fee notionally covers the service cost of the actual copper (in most cases) last mile cable needed to deliver service. In principle you could use it to make voice telephone calls (remember those?) and needn't buy it from the same provider as Internet service piggybacked on the same physical infrastructure.
So e.g. Big ISP #1 advertises Internet is "£5 for first six months†" and then the small print explains "† Plus line rental of £11.50 per month". That's £16.50 customers will actually be paying, and a competitor Big ISP #2 won't get far advertising Internet as "£15 for first six months" because that sounds much more expensive even though it's less. So sure enough they'll do the same thing only more so "£3 for the first six months†" "† Plus line rental of £12 per month".
Still, ISPs argued this is fair because they don't actually provide the service "line rental" pays for, they don't have teams of engineers in vans ready to dig up cable and repair it, that's something a last mile owner does.
Except, since the last mile is a natural monopoly that provider is legally obliged to publish its pricing and rationale. Sure enough it does bill for "line rental". But is it charging £12 per month? £11.50 per month? Er, no, over the modern period its costs have reduced gradually and it's charging those ISPs about £8 per month. So that £12 "line rental" is actually £8 line rental plus £4 "Money we're hiding from our real prices so as to trick customers".
Even if they never met in a darkened room and agreed to fix these bogus prices, the effect was that all large UK ISPs inflated a fee so as to make their prices look cheaper, taking advantage of customers. Maybe no crime was committed, except in the sense that customers got ripped off.
This particular loophole was closed by requiring ISPs to advertise the price that includes all fees needed to deliver the actual service, and sure enough once they couldn't use it to hide the real price the ISPs stopped pretending "line rental" cost 50% more than it really did.
Example: A few years ago it was legal in the UK to advertise the price of broadband excluding the fee for "landline rental". This recurring fee notionally covers the service cost of the actual copper (in most cases) last mile cable needed to deliver service. In principle you could use it to make voice telephone calls (remember those?) and needn't buy it from the same provider as Internet service piggybacked on the same physical infrastructure.
So e.g. Big ISP #1 advertises Internet is "£5 for first six months†" and then the small print explains "† Plus line rental of £11.50 per month". That's £16.50 customers will actually be paying, and a competitor Big ISP #2 won't get far advertising Internet as "£15 for first six months" because that sounds much more expensive even though it's less. So sure enough they'll do the same thing only more so "£3 for the first six months†" "† Plus line rental of £12 per month".
Still, ISPs argued this is fair because they don't actually provide the service "line rental" pays for, they don't have teams of engineers in vans ready to dig up cable and repair it, that's something a last mile owner does.
Except, since the last mile is a natural monopoly that provider is legally obliged to publish its pricing and rationale. Sure enough it does bill for "line rental". But is it charging £12 per month? £11.50 per month? Er, no, over the modern period its costs have reduced gradually and it's charging those ISPs about £8 per month. So that £12 "line rental" is actually £8 line rental plus £4 "Money we're hiding from our real prices so as to trick customers".
Even if they never met in a darkened room and agreed to fix these bogus prices, the effect was that all large UK ISPs inflated a fee so as to make their prices look cheaper, taking advantage of customers. Maybe no crime was committed, except in the sense that customers got ripped off.
This particular loophole was closed by requiring ISPs to advertise the price that includes all fees needed to deliver the actual service, and sure enough once they couldn't use it to hide the real price the ISPs stopped pretending "line rental" cost 50% more than it really did.