CAIRO: Egypt’s Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) ruled that Cable Network Egypt (CNE) will refund subscribers who were duped into subscribing to the Arab Radio and Television Network (ART) to gain access to the African Cup of Nations matches.
Subscribers soon found out that ART had sold the rights to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera.
CNE, a shareholder company incorporated in 1991 as the first Pay-TV project in the Arab world by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) in cooperation with shareholders of private sector, was requested by the CPA to commit to delivering the refunds.
“We have taken all the necessary procedures to ensure that the consumer’s rights are protected. This was done through negotiations with officials at CNE, said Saeed El-Alfi, head of the CPA.
He explained that CNE was bound by Article 9 of the Egyptian Consumer Protection law for 2006 which states that, “A service provider shall be bound to pay a refund or cover the diminution in the service or provide it again to the consumer where a defect or fault appears as with reference to the nature of the service, the contractual conditions and commercial norms. Any dispute concerning breaches related to the service shall be referred to the Agency for a binding decision.
Sherif El Shazli, customers operations director at CNE, confirmed to the CPA that currently both CNE and [its other pay-tv company] Digital Services-Egypt (DSE), will refund all the subscription fees to their ART sports channel subscribers, explained El-Alfi.
Last November, Al Jazeera acquired all the sports content, rights of broadcast and trademarks of the ART.
ERTU is now caught in a dispute with Al Jazeera over the rights to broadcast of the African Cup of Nations matches which kicked off in Angola Sunday, as the Qatar based channel is demanding that the ERTU pay $10 million to broadcast only 10 of the Egyptian national football team’s matches.
The terms also prohibit Egypt from broadcasting re-runs of those matches and prohibit local commentators.
ERTU has sent a delegation to Angola for a radio broadcast of the matches.
