Preliminary investigations across Europe have revealed that many consumers are being tricked into expensive subscriptions assuming they are downloading services for free.
Action was taken by the European commission to stop the shady websites from deceiving customers by selling wallpapers and ringtones unethically. Between June 2 and 6, a simultaneous EU wide investigation in 27 member states showed that more than 80 percent of the websites needed to be scrutinized further “for suspected breach of EU consumer rules.”
Announcing about the investigation, EU consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva said, “Far too many people are failing victim to costly surprises from mysterious charges, fees and ringtone subscriptions they learn about for the first time when they see their mobile phone bill. There will be a Europe-wide enforcement action to track down each of these traders. We need to get a clear message out, particularly to teenagers and children: Be on your guard! It’s all about the small print.”
Many difficulties were faced during the probe which included offers of free ringtones when customers have to actually take out costly contracts, poor price transparency, key information that was poorly presented and a failure to provide contact details of the seller. According to the commission, young adults and children had a higher susceptibility of getting trapped by these websites.
The highest numbers of checked websites were in Romania, the UK, and the Czech Republic whereas Denmark, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Finland and Sweden were 10 member states whose websites needed further investigation.
The commission stated that faulty websites need to rectify the identified problems and failing to do so could lead to legal action. Additionally, there was a possibility of fines or even closure of the websites that provided inadequate information to the customers.