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Watch out for SMS to short Premium rate numbers
19.05.2016
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Upon sending an SMS/MMS to short numbers of 3-5 digits, mobile telephony users request or subscribe to value-added (Premium rate) content services, such as games, horoscope or certain applications for which they are usually charged additional costs. In order to avoid unwanted charges, abuse or fraud associated to such services, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) imposed on the providers a series of obligations regarding the users’ information, the breach of which triggers sanctions. This warning follows a sanction applied by ANCOM to a mobile telephony provider at the beginning of this month.
Information obligations imposed by ANCOM
The users must receive clear information on the applicable tariff and on the billing method for their SMS/MMS to short numbers each time they are communicated the national internal short number or the short code corresponding to a Premium rate service (prior to service provision), as well as at the moment of the service initiation and throughout its use, by means of messages that should include information about:
- the applicable tariff – the specification whether the tariff is higher than the one applicable on the network and whether the SMS/MMS are included in the respective subscription/extra-option;
- the service offered – service confirmation, period of provision, service accessing method, content access code;
- the existence of a tariff for information messages sent to the users, as applicable – the cost of which cannot exceed the tariffs for the national SMS/MMS associated to the tariff plan applied to a user.
Moreover, details regarding the consumption of Premium rate services offered by means of internal national short numbers or of short codes, including the corresponding tariff, as applicable, must be specified in the detailed invoice issued by the provider upon the subscriber’s request.
Recurring SMS/MMS
Where sending an SMS/MMS to a short number involves subscribing to a Premium rate service, for which the users are to receive recurrent SMS/MMS, the operators must inform the users on the fact that subsequent charging will be applied without further action from them, as well as on the frequency of messages and on the unsubscribing mechanism. Thus, the users will receive information messages both before and after accessing the service and during the ordering process, as well as throughout the period when the respective service is activated. For subscription-based services, the period and value of the flat rate for the respective period will be communicated. These details should reveal the value of a subscription, per month.
Sanctions applied by ANCOM for failure to inform the users
In May 2016, the Authority sanctioned RCS & RDS by contravention fine amounting to RON 10,000 for failure to inform their users thoroughly and accurately on the tariffs applicable to SMS sent to the internal short number 1872 within the contest “Win prizes at 4G speed from Digi Mobil and Pro FM!”, and for applying a higher tariff than the ceiling regulated for this category of numbers. Moreover, the operator had to refund the subscribers that had participated in the contest the whole difference between the additional cost charged for sending SMS to the internal short number 1872 and the tariff they should have charged for providing such services according to the ANCOM regulations.
About what, how and where you can complain
If, while using Premium rate services you do not receive the details regulated by ANCOM in Decision no. 1131/2014 on adopting the Code of Conduct for using internal national short numbers and SMS/MMS short codes or if the mobile telephony operators do not publish them on their own website, according to Decision no. 158/2015 on the obligations of informing the end-users, the users may complain to ANCOM, following the steps presented here.
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