The verdict delivered by the Supreme Court (MA) that punishes six cellular phone operators is a new hope for consumer protection efforts.
For years, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has been trying to bring shady businessmen to justice but it was always to no avail.
The win is not only for KPPU, but also for consumers.
The appeal panel of the Supreme Court on Monday last week imposed a fine of Rp77 billion to six cellular operators after it is proven that they were involved in the short message services (SMS) tariff cartel in the period of 2004 – 2007.
The verdict also strengthened the ruling made by the KPPU in 2008, that was annulled by the Central Jakarta District Court.
The sanction is actually very light.
The Supreme Court should have imposed a more severe sanction, considering financial losses suffered by consumers are quite big.
Based on the calculation done by the KPPU, financial losses suffered by consumers due to the SMS cartel reached Rp2.87 trillion.
In addition, the fine is nothing compared with the profits gained by those cellular operators.
The suspicion of conspiracy to determine the SMS tariff was apparent when the KPPU began investigation of this case.
The indication of the violation of Law Number of 5 on 1999 on the ban of Monopoly Practices and Unhealthy Business Competition is seen from the SMS tariff that did not move from the figure of Rp250-350 since 2001.
In fact, according to the calculation of the Regulation Board of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, tariff of sending text messages (SMS) should have been lower.
Besides, since 1 January 2007, the calculation of the tariff is based on production costs.
If we follow the pattern, there should be no reason to set the tariff high.
From the calculation of the Regulation Board, production costs of sending a single SMS should be only Rp76 at most.The money is divided for the sending operator and the recipient operator.
The evidence that the cartel did exist was getting stronger when the KPPU found a written agreement among them.
This conspiracy must be stopped.
Over the years, users of cellular phones had to pay higher tariffs of sending text messages, even higher compared with the tariffs in developed countries.
For the record, users of cellular phones are not only bosses in skyscrapers, but also construction workers and meatball vendors.
Consumer protection is indeed a rare item in this country.
It is often much talked about and even regulated by laws but the practice is non-existent.
Our consumers are virtually without power.
The verdict delivered by the Supreme Court can serve as an ammunition for consumers to retrieve their rights stolen by cellular operators.
The verdict can also be used as evidence to file a class action at the district court.
The class action can also give deterrent effects for those shady businessmen.
As an institution mandated to conduct supervision, the KPPU should be more active in unveiling nasty practices in the business world.
If ‘economic diseases’ such as monopoly, cartels, and unhealthy business continue to get rampant, the economy will not be efficient and will be difficult to compete with other countries.
Eventually, not only consumers in certain business sectors who will suffer, but the whole nation will also bear the brunt.