n December 2009, PhonepayPlus issued a Help Note on Virtual Chat services in response to the high number of investigations that had been brought for final adjudication since January 2009.

Following publication of this Help Note, PhonepayPlus received a number of representations from industry stakeholders seeking clarity on the provisions in the Help Note. We have therefore decided to revise and reissue the Help Note to clarify the following points: 

• Service/Information Providers must not continue to send charged messages to consumers after the £10 spend limit has been reached, until a positive response has been sent by the consumer;
• Any promotions for services using mobile long numbers must be transparent, not misleading and clearly worded as a promotion, including all the required terms and conditions.

Compliance advice is available, free of charge and in writing, from the PhonepayPlus Executive. Please note that advice given by the Executive is not binding on the Code Compliance Panel, although a record of such advice is always maintained and will be taken into account by a Tribunal should a service later be found to be in breach of the Code.

To view the revised ‘Help Note on Virtual Chat services (Including text chat)’, pleas click here.