Competition Committee acts against Beeline over consumer rights violations

The Committee for the Development of Competition and Consumer Protection has issued a directive to Beeline, a mobile operator in Uzbekistan, requiring a review of the terms under which monthly and daily subscription fees are deducted.

According to the committee, 8.2% of all consumer complaints received in 2024 and 8.9% in the first four months of 2025 were related to telecommunications services — a significant portion of which involved Beeline. The most common issues included rising tariff costs, the activation of paid content and services without consent, billing errors, service quality concerns, and more.

One of the major grievances raised was that when users lack sufficient balance to pay the monthly fee, Beeline automatically switches them to a daily plan without their consent. Despite deducting a daily fee, users are often unable to use mobile data, and other inconveniences were also reported.

Key findings from the committee's analysis:

For tariff plans like “Yana”, “Hammasi ZO‘R”, “Multi Kuch”, and nearly 10 others:

• If the balance is insufficient to cover the monthly fee, a daily charge of 2,000 UZS is automatically deducted.
• This daily deduction cannot be refused or deactivated by the user.
• If a full daily payment cannot be made (e.g., balance is 1,900 UZS), the account goes into negative balance and the number is blocked. Users are then denied access to the service — despite being charged.
• The daily fee continues to be deducted automatically until enough balance is collected for the full monthly package. Once that happens, the monthly fee is deducted, and a new 30-day cycle begins.

Similarly, the currently active (but limited to new subscribers only) plans like “Standart”, “Yashin”, “Aniq”, “Erkin”, and “Start” also deduct a daily fee when the balance is insufficient for a monthly payment. In these plans, users cannot manually enable or disable the daily option or refuse the service.

The Competition Committee found that these automatic deductions and conditions violate several legal provisions and infringe on consumer rights:

• Accounts are pushed into a negative balance and blocked, even when users don't consent to daily deductions.
• Despite being charged, users are not granted access to services within the daily package.
• The inability to disable automatic daily deductions forces users to pay for a service they may not want or use.
• Consumers are not given the freedom to choose, activate, or deactivate the daily plan at will.

Committee's directive to Beeline (Unitel LLC):

To protect the rights of consumers, Beeline has been instructed to:

1. Stop the automatic daily deductions when there's insufficient balance for the monthly payment.
2. Provide users the option to voluntarily activate daily services, for example, through a USSD code.
3. Prohibit debt-based deductions of monthly or daily subscription fees.
4. Inform users in a timely manner about any changes to service terms or conditions.

Message from the Committee to Consumers:

“Dear Consumers,

“If your legal rights are violated in relation to the quality, accessibility, or billing of telecom services, please contact the Competition Committee.

“Remember: Your rights are protected by law!”