Time to toughen up on ringtone marketing rules

Stuart Corner
Friday, 18 July 2008 06:31

Opinion and Analysis

Well, for starters there is no "Australian Code of Conduct for SMS services". There is not even a code, technically it is a scheme. According to Communications Alliance it was developed by the mobile industry and is known as the "Mobile Premium Services Industry Scheme ". It was approved by ACMA on 28 September 2006 and came into effect on the 29 October 2006.

It was developed in response to government regulations set out in the Telecommunications Service Provider (Mobile Premium Services) Determination 2005 (No.1). That determination provided for the development of industry codes for self-regulation and for the ACMA to investigate alleged breaches of the code and to enforce compliance.

So what does the 'scheme' about less than adequate customer information that could give rise to the EC's concerns about "people 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"?

To comply with the code Bubble Mob would be required to "implement appropriate mechanisms to inform customers, before accessing a service, of the actual charges to be incurred for acquiring the premium content service, in a clear and unambiguous manner." This mechanism must include "a clear message advising customers that, in using the service, they may become liable for additional charges, such as data carriage charges, for delivery of the service." I did not find Bubble Mob's message by any means clear and unambiguous.

Bubble Mob would also be required to "implement appropriate mechanisms to inform customers, in a clear and unambiguous manner," before they use the service "of the nature and terms and conditions of use of each premium service." The fine print did say "Bubblemob term and conditions apply" but as to whether or not the fine print represented the sum total of such terms and conditions was not clear, and there was no link to any web site where such might be found.

In summary I'd say that Bubble Mob is probably sailing pretty close to the wind but would comply. What I can say is that when my young son saw the ad he got very excited and pestered me to put some ringtones and games on his mobile. I agreed initially and it was only after close inspection of the ad that I realised what I would be letting myself in for and said no.

However, I believe the real problem lies not in Bubble Mob's advertising practices but in the wording of the code which lacks any precise or measurable definitions of compliance, at least in this area. A good start would be (a) content providers must specify in their advertising material the correct name of the code and where it can be found; (b) information on the costs and commitments required to obtain the advertised content should be displayed in a style and a size comparable to the instructions for obtaining it and incurring those costs.