Calls to Regulate Ringtone Sales in Ireland

The Irish politician, Michael Finneran TD has called for rules to be put in place on ringtone adverts, so that RegTel the industry watchdog can regulate premium rate phone services.

"Such safeguards would protect consumers signing up for premium rate ringtone services, such as ringtones and wallpapers. Many misleading ads have meant many people have run up large bills because all costs are not spelled out. It has come to light, that many people have mistakenly run up large bills by inadvertently subscribing to ringtone and text services when they thought they were just buying one tune."

"The popularity of ringtones, such as 'Crazy Frog' has led many people to download it to their phone without realising that it is only part of a bundle of tunes they will be regularly billed for, in essence they are signing up for a subscription plan."

"What we need to see in place, are rules which will force content sellers to make it clear what people have bought and how much ongoing costs are. Also, that details of prices and how often people are billed are prominent in adverts."

"One of the biggest problems which may be faced is the actual policing ringtone sellers. We need to be more active in seeking out offending firms rather than just investigating on a case-by-case basis. I will be calling on RegTel and the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources to urgently examine the introduction of such proposals", Deputy Finneran concluded."

Posted to the site on 29th July 2005