If a consumer is involved in a dispute with his service provider, he may apply to a dispute resolution committee for a ruling. OPTA therefore finds it important for service providers to affiliate to such a dispute resolution committee. It is for this reason that OPTA will strictly monitor compliance with the duty of affiliation stipulated in the Telecommunications Act.
Duty of affiliation
Providers of public telephony services have a duty to affiliate to a dispute resolution committee. This is stipulated in Section 12.1 of the Telecommunications Act. This duty also applies to providers of VoIP, paging, telex and carrier services 
Carrier servicesA telephone subscriber can use a carrier service to have a different telecommunications service provider handle his call. He needs to dial four digits before the relevant telephone number for this purpose. If he uses carrier preselection, this will occur automatically. . Any service provider that is not party to a direct contractual relationship with a consumer does not have a duty of affiliation. This includes those service providers that only have business customers, for example.
Stichting Geschillencommissie
Stichting Geschillencommissies voor Consumentenzaken in The Hague consists of dozens of dispute resolution committees which deal with different matters. Public telephony service providers have the option of affiliating to the Geschillencommissie Telecommunicatie [Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Committee] or the Geschillencommissie Elektronische Communicatiediensten [Dispute Resolution Committee for Electronic communications services] for the purposes of complying with their duty of affiliation.