AIME wants UK regulator PhonePayPlus to change the way it punishes rogue D2C companies.
The trade body that represents the premium telephony business wants PhonePayPlus to punish unscrupulous content providers rather than the aggregators that power their operations.Sally Weatherall, chairperson of AIME, said: “Under the current PPP Code of Practice, primary liability rests with the service provider. This gives the content provider no incentive to comply with the code at all. They can simply default on the fine, and move to a new aggregator – leaving the old one to pay PPP and carry the bad debt and reputation damage.”
AIME is also advocating a content provider’s registration scheme, a review on the ban on third party databases, consistency in the implementation of PayforIt, and more action by publishers to refuse non-compliant advertising
“If these initiatives were adopted by the industry and the regulator, the cycle of ‘growth, regulation and collapse’ in D2C could be prevented and consumer trust restored,” added Weatherall.
Its call comes with complaints against rogue providers on the rise again. In May there was a court case against AT&T Wireless for unauthorised charges from ringtone providers. And earlier this year PhonePayPlus reported a marked increase in UK consumer complaints.
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