Your cell phone or cable contract cannot renew itself

It is a three-rule law that changes what happens when your cell phone or cable contract reaches its expiry date: it cannot renew itself for another equal period, it automatically becomes month to month, and from then on you may cancel whenever you like.

It applies to cell phone or paid television telecommunications contracts in Puerto Rico. The law names those two services and no others.

• That it be a cell phone or paid television telecommunications contract.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The automatic renewal clause is prohibited

   It is the law’s heart and fits in one sentence: “no clause may be included in cell phone or paid television telecommunications contracts stating that the service provided by the telecommunications company will renew automatically for the period the user originally contracted.” If your contract carries such a clause, that clause runs against the law.

2. 2

   Step 2: At expiry, it becomes month to month

   And that happens by law, not because you ask: “The term of a cell phone or paid television telecommunications service contract, once its original term expires, and unless the parties expressly consent otherwise before the contract’s expiry date, shall be month to month.” Watch the exception, which is the part to keep an eye on: for it to be anything else, both parties must expressly consent, and they must do so before the expiry date.

3. 3

   Step 3: They must tell you when it expires

   The law puts the duty on the company. “Telecommunications companies operating in Puerto Rico shall notify their clients, in the monthly statement, whether by written or electronic communication, of the date the original contract agreed between the parties expires, or on the telecommunications companies’ web page for a client’s account.” The article’s second paragraph clarifies that publishing it on your account page satisfies the requirement, so if you do not see it on the bill, look there.

4. 4

   Step 4: Once month to month, you cancel whenever you like

   The law uses the words “at any time”: users may notify the companies with whom they hold contracts of the termination of the service at any time, “once the term stipulated in the original contract ends and the user is being billed on a month-to-month basis.” The two conditions are that the original term has ended and that you are already being billed month to month.

5. 5

   Step 5: The law binds even without the regulation

   This detail helps if someone tells you the law is “not implemented.” The article ordering the regulation says so itself: the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board shall create a regulation within ninety (90) days of the law’s approval, “but its creation is not jurisdictional in nature since this Act shall be in force from its approval.”

6. 6

   Step 6: Which services it covers, and which it does not name

   We say this so you claim neither too much nor too little. The law names two services in each of its operative articles: cell phone and paid television. It does not mention internet, landline or bundles, and we will not extend it a reach its text does not give. If your problem is an early termination charge inside the original term, that is another guide.

The law entrusts the regulation to the telecommunications regulator, which the compiled text names as the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board. For the administrative consumer route, the step by step is in our DACO complaint guide. If the problem is an early termination charge before the contract expires, that is the early termination guide; if it is a charge you do not recognize on the telecom bill, that is the fraud one.

• Accepting that the contract “renewed itself” for another year: that clause is prohibited.
• Not looking for the expiry date: the company must give it on the statement or on your account page.
• Signing an extension without noticing: for it not to be month to month, both parties must expressly consent before expiry.
• Believing you must wait a cycle to cancel: while month to month you may notify at any time.
• Applying the law to internet or landline: the text names only cell phone and paid television.
• Confusing it with the early termination charge, which happens inside the original term and has its own guide.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)

  DACO

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• DACO services

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov