Last year PhonepayPlus issued fines totalling £360,000 but this
year had already issued £223,500 of fines by March. The average
fine size has also increased by almost 50%, rising from £10,909
last year to £14,900 in the first three months of this year.
"There are clear rules when it comes to the promotion, content
and delivery of mobile phone paid services," said George Kidd,
Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus. "We expect these rules to be
followed and any failings of compliance will be punished."
Premium rate phone lines were at the centre of the television
competition scandals last year that resulted in large fines for
every UK terrestrial broadcaster. ITV is still awaiting a fine from
broadcast regulator Ofcom which is expected to be £4 million.
PhonepayPlus has announced a review of the £350 million market,
investigating abuses of customers using premium rate numbers. It
said that particular problems that it would investigate include
number operators failing to obey the 'STOP' command from users of
subscription services and the use of terms suggesting content is
free and unsolicited messages.
Premium rate numbers are increasingly being used for mobile
phone services, it said. The proportion of numbers used has nearly
doubled since last year, with 45% of numbers being used for mobile
services.
Operators of premium rate mobile services are disproportionately
the subject of user complaints. PhonepayPlus said that 80% of the
complaints received this year have been about mobile services, a
40% increase on last year's figures for the same period.
The regulator said that it plans to publish the report in
July.
