Information Provider - Mobiya Limited, Oxfordshire
Service Provider - Oxygen8 Communications Limited, West Midlands
Service Name - Txt Dater, Contact and Dating
Breaches upheld against - Mobiya Limited, Oxfordshire
Procedure - Standard
Case reference 808216
Summary
On 17 June 2009, the PhonepayPlus Research team conducted initial monitoring of the ‘TXT DATER’ service as accessed via the dailysport.com website. The service was promoted via the banner advert stating ’15,000 Massage & escort girls throughout the UK – updated every 30 seconds!’
On 25 June 2009 the Executive carried out further monitoring of the service which went into greater depth and also some research as to how the ‘Mobiya classified’ service appeared to operate. Consumers were charged £1.50 to receive a text message containing contact details of the user profile that they had selected. The Service Provider had contracted to supply the shortcodes for this service to the Information Provider who in turn used ‘Sport Newspapers Limited’ to promote the service.
The ‘TXT DATER’ service was meant to operate as a contact and dating service and individual users could upload their profiles and contact one another in private; this appeared to have been abused by individuals advertising as prostitutes in order to gain clients. In addition to this the ‘contact and dating’ service appeared to have been poorly managed by the Service Provider and Information Provider who had allowed the service to be used for these types of advertisements, this poor service management was further demonstrated when taking into account the references to “escort girls” in the banner advert and the nature of the advertisements this type of service would therefore be likely to attract.
PhonepayPlus formed the view that the promotion contravened the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice (11th Edition Amended April 2008) (‘the Code’), and raised the following potential breaches under the Code:
Paragraph 5.3.1g – Harm and offence (promoting or facilitating prostitution)
The Tribunal upheld the breach raised. The Tribunal considered the case to be moderate, issued a formal reprimand and imposed a fine of £2,000.
Administrative Costs awarded: 100%
Source – www.phonepayplus.org.uk
