Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to ensure that mobile telephone operators and other companies display the total cost of consumer contracts over the contracts' lifetime, including predicted inflation rises at the point of sale.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 set out the information that a consumer must be given before they enter into a contract with a trader. This includes “the total price of the goods or services inclusive of taxes, or where the nature of the goods or services is such that the price cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, the manner in which the price is to be calculated”.

To further safeguard consumers, Ofcom introduced new rules in January 2014 which mean that for contracts entered into after 23 January 2014, when the agreed core price increases mid-contract, consumers can exit their contracts without penalty and hence can switch to another provider or tariff. This applies to all communications providers.