A mobile service provider has been fined £30,000 by the premium rate phone regulator over a text message service which charged customers without their permission. Appearing to be a network update, the message charged each user 50p without their knowledge.
Opera Telecom has been fined by ICSTIS, though it was only the service provider which administered the sending of the messages and not the company with which they originated. Only service providers, and not content providers, are liable for ICSTIS fines.
Over 60,000 messages were sent, each costing the recipient 50p. The messages read: 'Update: Your services have been modified. Please turn the handset off, then back on, for any changes to take effect’. There was no system update and the message had not come, as it appeared to have, from the customer's network operator. The message was only sent to customers on the Orange network.
The message broke the law and the ICSTIS rules, the body ruled. That the message was an offence under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations was not disputed by Opera.
"Opera Telecom were fined £30,000 and issued with a formal reprimand," said the ICSTIS ruling. "In addition, access to the service was barred indefinitely as it could never be seen to be compliant."
In its responses, Opera said that the company which created the message was responsible for breaking the rules. The company said that it had requested of its client that it pre-warn Opera of any promotional campaign, and that this had not been done.
ICSTIS said that Opera did not disclose to it the identity of the creator of the campaign. "We only name the information provider if we are told it by the service provider," said the spokesman. "We have to give them a chance to accept responsibility or defend themselves, in the interests of natural justice."
"In this case Opera has simply said that the information provider created the message but has not actually named the information provider," said the ICSTIS spokesman.
The spokesman said that ICSTIS would be introducing a new code of practice this year which would allow it to fine information providers directly, provided they accept responsibility for breaches.
Opera did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
