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Students aged between 14 and 18 from different Stara Zagora schools visited today the Ombudsman Institution as part of their training as young leaders in the course “Integrity, development and success through civic activism” which is part of a project of the International Youth Center – Think Locally, Act Globally.

Deputy Ombudsman Elena Cherneva welcomed the young people and informed them about the powers and functions of the institution, about the Ombudsman as a figure that is a Constitution-established independent authority to promote and protect the rights and freedoms of citizens and explained that the election is pursuant to the Ombudsman Act by the National Assembly for a 5-year term in office.

“The Ombudsman’s main prerogative, first of all, is to be a postbox for complains and reports about violations of rights of citizens. The agenda of the activity of the institution is formulated in this way. After complaints are lodged, verification is requested from the authorities implicated and, if necessary, recommendations are sent. The Ombudsman is free to act on his/her own initiative in case of recurrent problems and to propose amendments to the legislation that are submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly,” the Deputy Ombudsman said.

Elena Cherneva emphasized that last year citizens filed approximately 15,500 complaints and that most often they complain against violations of consumer rights – against banks, collection agents, district heating companies, power distribution companies, water and sewerage operators, etc.

The main focus of the meeting was the work of the Ombudsman to protect consumers’ rights as affected by the indexation and the increase of the tariffs of mobile service providers. In connection with that, the students asked to be advised how they could protect themselves and their families against a recurring increase of the mobile service tariffs and what they should undertake to that effect.

The Deputy Ombudsman described in detail the institution’s fight against the indexation of monthly subscription fees and explained that it is immaterial in the sense of the Consumer Protection Act, as it is not agreed on with the individual subscriber. That is, the customers of the mobile service operators cannot influence the text of their contracts with the mobile service operators and even are confronted with difficulties to read the contracts before they sign them.

Elena Cherneva drew attention to the fact that the indexation clause in the contract does not even require the express consent of the customer, unlike clauses such as “this contract shall take effect” or “consents to the processing of personal data” where the customer could negotiate.

It was made clear that indexation is seen as an avenue solely to price increases and that practically there is no provision for price reductions in the event of deflation, i.e. the decrease of this index.

“The unfairness of the contract term derives from the absence of reciprocity to reduce the price of the service,” the Ombudsman’s expert Lyubomir Kalinov explained.

The students were eager to know why, when the price goes up, people cannot opt out of their contract with a mobile service operator even if the final set price is significantly higher as compared to the price agreed on by their parents at the time of signing the contract.

The Deputy Ombudsman praised the students on their creative thinking and stressed that thus customers do not have the opportunity to assess the financial implications of entering into such a contract.

“The indexation clause does not clearly indicate the amount of the possible increase and just remarks that it is adjusted to the average annual index of consumer prices for the previous year, as stated by the National Statistical Institute (NSI). There is no way for the consumer, even if he/she is an economic expert, to know the amount of the possible increase since it is not known what the average annual consumer price index will be,” said Nina Boyadjieva, Director of the Rights of Users of Administrative and Public Services Department.

The discussion deepened with the young leaders’ specific questions as to why the institutions that the Ombudsman has been alerting since 2020 failed to do their job and why mobile service operators are allowed to benefit from unfair contract terms through unfair business practices and deceitful sale techniques. They decided to file a collective complaint to the Ombudsman against this vicious practice and started to consider what action they may take at local level to voice their discontent with price indexation.