Minister of State Tony Killeen has expressed his hope that new legislation aimed at clamping down on text message and phoneline scams would be introduced shortly.The County Clare T.D. was commenting after Communications Minister Eamon Ryan this week presented a Bill to Government to regulate the premium rate telecommunication sector in Ireland. The bill refers to premium rate content offered by operators for services such as ring tones, traffic news, sports results, competitions advice, entertainment and chat lines.
According to Minister of State Killeen: “I am pleased to see that the self-regulation of the industry on the issue of premium rate services is to be ended. These services have been the subject of thousands of complaints, to RegTel and to the Department of Communications. I have no doubt that this new legislation will help protect the consumer, particularly children and the elderly, who can be subject to misleading information and exploitation. Indeed, there have been many cases in County Clare where consumers have been targeted by text message and phoneline scams.”
Minister Killeen said that the planned introduction of fines of up to EUR250,000 and the revocation of licences for fraud would put in place a strong regime for consumer protection and for subscribers to premium rate services. He added: “This Bill replaces the existing industry model of self-regulation overseen by RegTel and transfers the regulatory functions to the statutory Communications Regulator – ComReg. This is a major step forward for consumer protection and for regulation of the industry and I am confident it will improve the Irish consumer’s experience of telecommunications in general”.
Provisions of the Bill:
- For the first time, premium rate service providers will require a licence to operate and will be required to abide by conditions of that service
- Failure to comply will result in amendment, suspension or revocation of the licence by ComReg
- Operation without a licence will be punished potential fines of up to €250,000
- A separate offence will be created for overcharging for a premium rate service
- Compliance with a new Code of Practice will be a condition for a licence
The Bill will be published in the coming days.
