txtNation Limited (Case reference: 01423)
| Case Number | 01423 |
| Published date | 21 January 2010 |
| Adjudicated Party | txtNation Limited |
| Procedure Type | Emergency Procedure (Phone-Paid Services Authority) |
THE CODE COMPLIANCE PANEL OF PHONEPAYPLUS
TRIBUNAL DECISION
Thursday 7 January 2009
TRIBUNAL SITTING No. 44/ CASE 4
CASE REFERENCE: 826856/AM
Information provider: TxtNation Ltd, London
Service provider: MX Telecom, London
Type of service: £10 reverse-billed service
Service title: Unknown
Service numbers: 60999 and 79555 (and other shortcodes)
Cost: £10 per reverse-billed text message
Network operator: All Mobile Network Operators
Number of complainants: 12
THIS CASE WAS BROUGHT AGAINST THE INFORMATION PROVIDER
UNDER PARAGRAPH 8.7 OF THE CODE
BACKGROUND
PhonepayPlus received a complaint from the operator of the website Gumtree.com, stating
that eight of its customers had received an unsolicited email or text message after having
posted an advert on Gumtree.com. A further four complaints of a similar nature were
received from members of the public.
The complainants mainly noted that both the email and text messages had the appearance
of having been sent by Gumtree.com, and required the recipients to verify their posted
Gumtree.com advertisement by texting a ten-digit keyword to shortcode 60999 within 24
hours, or else have their advertisement removed. On sending a text message with the
keyword, users received a reverse-billed text, written in English or Russian, incurring a £10
charge. The pricing in the promotional email was presented as “00.1 GBP (incl. VAT)”. The
promotional text message contained no pricing.
(i) The Investigation
The Executive conducted this matter as an Emergency Procedure investigation in
accordance with paragraph 8.6 of the Code.
Following the Executive’s monitoring, it contacted the Service Provider by email dated 20
November 2009 and requested that the service be switched off. The Executive issued a
breach letter to the Service Provider, raising potential breaches of paragraphs 5.2, 5.4.1a,
5.7.1 and 5.8 of the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice (11th Edition Amended April 2008) (‘the
Code’). The Executive accepted a signed undertaking and re-issued the breach letter to the
Information Provider on 10 December 2009. A formal response was subsequently received
from the Information Provider.
The Tribunal made a decision on the breaches raised by the Executive on 7 January 2009
SUBMISSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
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