UK regulator Phonepay Plus has cracked down on three companies over premium-rate text operations which breached its rules.

The first case raised charges against Connect Ltd, trading as SMSBill, over an app which promised access to popular games. In the process of installing the app, users were repeatedly asked whether they agreed with the rules of downloading – each time they accepted, a premium-rate text message was automatically sent to a shortcode, charging the user £10.

Phonepay fined the company £50,000, and has demanded that it fully refund all consumers who have used the service, within three months.

The second case, against txtNation, regarded quiz game Brain Buster, which consisted of a free-to-download app and a text alerts subscription service operating on four shortcodes, charging £4 per week, with additional charges of £5 and £10 for extra quizzes.

Phonepay Plus raised concerns about the operation of the stop command, which it said breached its method of exit rules. txtNation will have to pay a fine of £15,000, and submit to a further independent compliance audit.

The third concerned 2Communications, which was previously the subject of a PhonepayPlus investigation and adjudication back in April, over text scams involving misuse of 070 numbers.

2Communications failed to pay the £25,000 fine issued, on the basis that it was experiencing financial difficulties – a claim it could not support with any evidence. PhonepayPlus placed a prohibition on 2Communications from providing, or having any involvement in, any premium rate services for a period of two years, until it pays the fine and makes the required changes to its operation.

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