The Supreme Federal Court declared the law, enacted last year, unconstitutional. Find out everything about this subject!
The Supreme Federal Court (STF) declared unconstitutional the State Law of Rio de Janeiro that guarantees consumers of mobile telephone services the right to functionality and access to data in underground transit crossings in all modes of transport. The unanimous decision was published this Monday (9), with the conclusion of the virtual trial that took place over the last week.
The law, sanctioned in December of last year, provided that telephone and internet services could operate on any underground route with an extension of more than 1 km, through the installation of signal repeaters or other equipment in the same segment, without any transfer of the cost for improving the infrastructure to consumers, with a period of twelve months for providers to adapt.
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Law
As justification, the bill approved by the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro argued that it could enact the rule to promote consumer rights without violating the Constitution. However, the rule was considered unconstitutional for violating the jurisdiction of the Union. In June of this year, the rule was challenged in the Supreme Federal Court as part of the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality, filed by the National Association of Cellular Operators, Acel.
The association stated that the power to legislate on telecommunications services lies with the Union. It also highlighted that the law was approved without a regulatory impact analysis and violates a Supreme Court precedent, which prohibits the installation of transmission systems. of telephony in areas located up to 100 meters from places such as houses, squares, parks and listed buildings.
Acel stated that rarely in the management of a complex infrastructure sector such as telecommunications has a law been so offensive to the legislative powers constitutionally conferred on the union.
Votes
Seven of the eleven ministers voted to overturn the law that requires telephone operators to install repeaters in underground train and subway passages so that transport users do not have the signal and the Internet cut off during the journey through the tunnels. In the rapporteur's vote, Minister Alexandre de Moraes assessed that the law, more than dealing with consumer protection, involves regulation of the provision of services by operators, which only the Union can legislate.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes also highlighted that the STF already has a firm understanding that the terms of the legal relationship between users and public service concessionaires must be defined through legislation of the granting political entity and that they are distinct from the consumer relationship, which is why member states cannot use the concurrent jurisdiction of article 24, V, of the Federal Constitution to create rules that interfere in the contractual balance between the federal power and the linked concessionaires.
Moraes also concluded that the contested law went beyond the balance of the consumer relationship, entering into definitions specific to the legislation that governs telecommunications services, such as the regulation of access to the network, with the imposition of technical and operational adjustments that directly impact the concession contract signed between the company providing the service and the granting Public Authority, which in this case, is the Union.
Moraes' vote was followed by ministers André Mendonça, Rosa Weber, Cármen Lúcia, Edson Fachin, Dias Toffoli and Cristiano Zanin.