UK Regulators Deal with Mobile Premium Complaints

PhonepayPlus, a regulating watchdog agency in the UK announced it will  review of the U.K.'s mobile premium services due to consumer complaints. That included:

• In the first three months of this year, PhonepayPlus received more than 4,500 complaints related to mobile. This equates to 80% of all complaints received, a 40% increase on mobile related complaints over a similar period last year;
• In 2007, PhonepayPlus adjudicated on 33 mobile services with total fines in excess of £360,000;
• By March 2008, PhonepayPlus had already adjudicated on 15 mobile services, resulting in fines of £223,500. Today, PhonepayPlus published adjudications on four more cases, resulting in fines of £68,000; and
• 45% of premium-rate numbers and short codes checked by consumers on PhonepayPlus' website this year related to mobile services, as comparedto 24% this time last year.

PhonepayPlus aims to publish a review in July to  provide an overview of mobile phone-paid services, and
identify issues affecting UK consumers. Of particular interest to PhonepayPlus at this early stage are:

• Unsolicited promotions, especially text messages;
• Price transparency and the use of words that indicate content is 'free'; and
• Subscription services (e.g. ringtones) and the 'STOP' command