Latest ruling fails to include new media

Latest ruling fails to include new media

CALLCENTRES, Teletext, the Internet, digital TV and WAP phones will all escape the new rules over transparency, despite having a massive and growing impact on holiday sales.

And it would take a fresh Office of Fair Trading investigation to add new media to the Government order.

Call centres and Teletext accounted for 50% of leisure trips last year but have been largely ignored by the order which the Department of Trade and Industry claims will allow consumers to know “exactly who they are doing business with when they book their package holiday”.

The multiples already own various Teletext pages and Internet sites which they operate under different names.

Under the current order, Teletext pages may be termed an “advertisement”, forcing the vertically integrated groups to display their links but the industry is concerned the wording throughout the draft document is too vague.

DTI senior policy advisor Valerie Carpenter said that ministers could only take action on matters covered by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report.

If the order had tried to include new media, it would have faced a legal challenge.

“If people feel there’s still a problem, they will have to go back to the OFT,” she said.

Leisure Estates International chairman John Neilson said: “It has come up with a piece of legislation that is already out of date. What a waste of public money.”

Association of Independent Tour Operators spokeswoman Sue Ockwell said: “We alerted the DTI to these important loopholes yet it appears to have ignored the matter.”