Consumers will pay for enforcement of Digital Economy Act

According to recent reports the implementation of the Digital Economy Act could end up costing consumers money, as they could end up footing the bill through their broadband bills.

The controversial Digital Economy Bill was rushed into law just before the dissolution of parliament recently, and a number of elements of the Act had caused a lot of controversy including those relating to the action that Internet Providers were going to be told to take if customers were suspected of illegally file sharing.

The Liberal Democrats have already said that parts of the Bill should have been debated and scrutinised more before being passed into law, and are said to have urged their Tory peers from the new coalition government to look at repealing some elements of the Act. However, according to reports this is unlikely to happen.

It is now claimed that the cost of implementing some of the measures in the Digital Economy Act could result in consumers having to foot the bill by way of extra payments on their broadband bills. Internet Service Providers will incur additional costs as a result of having to send letters out as part of the three strikes measure, and it is likely that this will result in broadband subscription bills rising according to reports.

One official from the consumer group Consumer Focus stated: “New laws to crack down on online copyright infringement are already unfairly weighted against consumers yet customers are also likely to be expected to foot the bill for enforcing them. The last government admitted that any extra cost for broadband may price thousands of vulnerable consumers out of the market at a time when the internet is becoming vitally important for people to access vital services and get the best deals.”

Source – Zero Paid