Consumers Association wants tougher controls on premium SMS

Stuart Corner
Monday, 23 February 2009 00:11

IT Industry - Market

Regulations 'impotent' against premium SMS
Then, Choice claimed that "the current regulation of telecommunications is impotent in the face of consumer rip-offs, confusing marketing and poor customer service...Mobile phone users are being driven into debt by the hard sell of expensive subscriptions to mobile premium services...Many premium mobile services are little more than a scam. They trick consumers into signing up for expensive subscription services with misleading advertising focusing on so-called 'free' ring tones and the like."

Communications Alliance responded to Choice's latest press release by issuing its own saying it "contained a number of inaccuracies and failed to take account of the whole picture." Communications Alliance CEO Anne Hurley, said: "In particular, we are in the final stages of developing an MPS code that contains a comprehensive suite of consumer protections and – contrary to the claim by Choice – it will be mandatory and enforceable by the ACMA."

However Renouf pointed out that the ACMA had limited power over content providers who were primarily responsible for advertising premium SMS services.

Hurley also contradicted Choice's claim that "Complaints to the Telecom Industry Ombudsman (TIO) about these messages continue to climb sharply with more than 22,000 complaints lodged in the 2008 financial year alone." She  said: "MPS-related complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) dropped by 51 per cent in the last six months of 2008."

Hurley added that Comms Alliance had launched last November a dedicated consumer website (www.19SMS.com.au) that "provides consumers with a comprehensive guide to MPS and is specifically designed to help consumers make informed decisions when subscribing to MPS," and she called on Choice to "reach out to its extensive constituent base to ensure that they are provided with all the information about MPS including initiatives and tools that will help with their interaction with the telecommunications industry."

New group to help police premium SMS
She said also that a group comprising Communications Alliance, consumers, ACMA, TIO, and the ACCC had been formed to facilitate monitoring and compliance activity. She told ITWire that it had met once and that while it was envisaged that its scope would eventually be extended to a range of telecommunications regulations its focus initially was solely on premium SMS services.

She said its primary role was to share information available to the individual bodies in the co-regulatory environment to make it available to other so that all could better perform their respective roles. "It is not a formally constituted body, and it is not intended to add another layer of regulation or supplant the roles of other regulatory bodies."