Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! Time to toughen up on ringtone marketing rules
Cornered! Time to toughen up on ringtone marketing rules | Time to toughen up on ringtone marketing rules |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Friday, 18 July 2008 | |
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BusinessWeek reports that the European Commission has launched inquiries into ringtone websites across Europe following an initial investigation that found many were tricking consumers into expensive subscriptions when they thought they were downloading a single ringtone for free. According to BusinessWeek, the EU checked some 500 websites in all EU states as well as Norway and Iceland, and found that 80 percent of them needed to be investigated further "for suspected breaches of EU consumer rules." "Some websites offered unclear price information, not including taxes. Others were 'hiding key information in very small print', and did not provide required contact details," BusinessWeek said. "Additionally, some portals lure customers into long-term contracts by offering 'free' tunes; and many people thought they were buying a single ringtone, while they were in fact signing up to subscriptions, the commission found." It quoted EU consumer commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, saying: "Far too many people are failing victim to costly surprises from mysterious charges, fees and ringtone subscriptions they learn about for the first time when they see their mobile phone bill." Well we have heard all about this in Australia, and there is a code of conduct that is supposed to deter such dubious and deceptive marketing practices. Curious to see how it works in practice I grabbed the first example that came to hand: a full page ad from Bubble Mob on the back page of the freebie magazine from the local video rental store. The page was covered with colour images for individual ringtone, games, screensaver etc and at the bottom, the message, with graphics: "Subscribing is easy: (1) Txt keyword; (2) To this number 19 12 12 (3) Click on link http://... (4) enjoy!" Next to this, in a box that could easily have been covered with a five cent piece and in a graphic style quite different from the 'subscribing information' were the words "$4 signup+$8 per week". The fine print below explained that for this you got just two ringtone or wallpapers etc per week. Data download charges? In the fine print, couched in acronyms: "Standard operator SMS/WAP/GPRS charges apply." The fine print also claimed that "Bubblemob operates according to the Australian Code of Conduct for SMS services." So, does it comply? CONTINUED |
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