Maximum Fine For Opera Telecom Over GMTV Phone-In Scandal
Premium rate phone regulator Icstis today imposed a maximum fine of £250,000 on GMTV competition phone service provider Opera Telecom for selecting potential winners before competitions had closed.
Icstis found that all correct entries submitted after a certain time each day had no chance of winning, despite consumers being charged for entering.
The fine is the highest ever imposed by Icstis in its 21-year history.
In what it described as the “the worst case which ICSTIS had come across in terms of the numbers of consumers affected and the amount of money at stake”, ICSTIS found that at least 18 million callers had been charged for entering the competition but had no chance of winning.
With the average cost of a call being over £1, the revenue generated by callers with no hope of winning appeared to be in excess of £20 million.
Additional sanctions imposed on Opera Telecom include a bar on running competition services for 12 months and an order to pay full refunds to complainants. This has been suspended for three months pending a review by ICSTIS of the success of the current refunds scheme.
Opera Telecom was also given a formal reprimand.
George Kidd, ICSTIS chief executive, said: “Our hearing panel found clear evidence of fundamental failings within Opera Telecom. The company showed a reckless disregard for the interests of callers, with scant evidence of any attention being given to compliance with our code of practice. We have ordered Opera Telecom to bring in outside consultants to sort out their business. If they don’t do this to our satisfaction, the bar on them running competition services will come into effect immediately.
“The size of the fine we’ve imposed reflects the very serious nature of the breach of our rules. The consumer harm caused was aggravated by the sheer number of callers who paid to enter the competition but had no chance of winning, the huge amount of revenue that was unfairly generated from these callers, the length of time over which the practice had been going on and the extensive damage caused to public trust in phone-in competitions. The decisions we’ve announced today are part of a wider examination of events. Ofcom has also been investigating GMTV’s role and responsibilities, and will report on its findings in due course.”
It has been rumoured that Ofcom could give GMTV a record fine over the dodgy phone-in, with a report claiming that the figure could be as high as £2.8 million (see GMTV Could Face Record Fine Over Phone-In Scandal).
Last week, ITV announced that it would not be screening this year’s British Comedy Awards, after yet more allegations over dubious phone-ins (see ITV Will Not Screen Comedy Awards).
Icstis: www.icstis.org.uk