Icstis gets stronger powers to deal with mobile content providers

Icstis is overhauling its policies so it can penalise companies that provide content, such as ringtones and games, if they step out of line.

Until recently Icstis, which is the premium rate services regulator, could only take action against intermediary firms - companies that connect content producers to mobile networks – by naming and fining them.

From September, however, the watchdog will will be able to take direct action against companies that provide mobile phone content.

This is because these companies have complained to Icstis that it is fundamentally unfair to force them to take full responsibly financially for the actions of their clients.

One of these intermediary companies, such as Wireless Information Network (WIN),which had recently been fined £50,000 by Icstis because of the activities of one of Win's clients, content provider Summit Technologies.

This content provider had operated a rule-breaking text message competition. WIN paid Icstis the fine and has already recouped the cost from Summit revenue.

However the company argued that it and other intermediary companies could not feasibly police the content of all their customers.

"We have two million messages a day passing through our system in real time, we are like an internet service provider, we can’t technically check the content of all those," said Sally Weatherall, head of WIN's legal department.

Weatherall said that Summit was now banned from Win's platform.

The watchdog agreed and said the change in the rules was something it had wanted to address for a long time. But it said because its Code of Practice is so complicated it has taken some time to do.

"Traditionally the way a case would have been dealt with was to have the service provider take full responsibility. Now we are trying to make it possible for the information provider to take responsibility.

"We will be reviewing our code of practice in September and we are in an interim stage at the moment. The new code will make it much clearer how we deal with content and information providers," said Icstis.

The updated code will mean content providers who knowingly break the code of practice face bans from providing this content over mobile networks.