Mobile premium services industry tries to put its house in order

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 18 March 2009 10:33

Opinion and Analysis

Communications Alliance has finalised the Mobile Premium Services Industry Code, and this Thursday will submit it to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for registration. But it's not good enough.

My immediate reaction to the news that Communications Alliance has completed the mobile premium services code was "about time too!"

The Federal government was - in my opinion - wrong to let the industry self-regulate in the first place.

And the reputable side of the industry has been far too slow to stem the activities of those happy to take advantage. Perhaps that's not surprising when you could have the situation of apparently reputable companies using subsidiaries to behave in ways that might not be congruent with their professed corporate values.

The main complaints have come from users who have entered competitions or purchased specific pieces of content (wallpapers, ringtones and so on), only to find that they have implicitly signed up for subscription services with ongoing charges.

The ads - at least those I've seen - aren't completely fraudulent, but they are misleading due to the use of small print that's almost illegible on many TV screens, not to mention accompanying features that appear designed to distract the viewer from the text.

Then there's the problem of actually cancelling a subscription once its started. We've all heard stories about 'customer service' lines that are never answered, or 'STOP' messages that are apparently ignored.

The code requires clear and prominent information in ads - see page 2.