mBlox Limited (Case reference: 01801)
| Case Number | 01801 |
| Published date | 20 November 2008 |
| Year | 2008 |
| Adjudicated Party | mBlox Limited |
| Procedure Type | Track 2 (Phone-Paid Services Authority) |
THE CODE COMPLIANCE PANEL OF PHONEPAYPLUS (FORMERLY
ICSTIS)
TRIBUNAL DECISION
Thursday 6 November 2008 TRIBUNAL SITTING No. 14 / CASE 1
CASE REFERENCE: 745754/AC
Service provider & area: mBlox Limited
Information provider & area: Info-Download Limited
Type of service: Competition
Service title: Daily Million/Grab a Grand
Service number: 86000
Cost: £4.50 per week
Network operator: Mobile Operators
Number of complainants: 71
BACKGROUND
The PhonepayPlus Executive (“the Executive”) received 71 complaints in respect of a competition
service which offered consumers the opportunity of winning £1,000,000 (“£1m”), whilst simultaneously
entering them into a subscription service. The subscription service provided 3 weekly chances weekly
of winning £1,000 and cost £4.50 per week. The consumer was sent multiple choice questions to
answer and the winner was the first person after 8pm to get the answer right. Although the £1m
element of the competition was promoted as 'free', in order to access this consumers were required to
sign up to the subscription element of the service.
The consumer complaints related to the receipt of unsolicited messages and lack of awareness of
the subscription element and cost of the service. The service was promoted mainly through
Internet sites dedicated to competitions and prize draws.
The Promotion
The Executive was alerted to the service following a complaint made by the mobile network 3 (“3”), in the
course of their 'Red Card' procedure. This was in respect of an Internet promotion entitled 'win £1 Million
- Free entry' on the website www.myoffers.co.uk (“myoffers”) a 3rd party site offering entry to numerous
competitions and quizzes. The promotion was one example of a number of 3rd party entry points.
There were various methods of entry to the service in question. Method 1 invited users to select a
combination of numbers (similar to selecting lottery numbers) after which they were invited to enter their
mobile number, "so that we can contact you if you have won". Upon entering a mobile number into the
site, the user was sent a free MT message, for example:
FreeMSG > to validate this is your mobile simply reply MILL to this message, or send MILL to
86000. Good Luck! 10/12p Ticket 03 12 18 20 33 - 03 06
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