PSA priorities for the quarter

A (slightly belated) happy new year to everyone from the PSA.

The Phone-paid Services Authority’s vision is a healthy and innovative market in which consumers can charge content, goods and services to their phone bill with confidence. In the final quarter of this financial year, we will continue to work closely with our stakeholders towards this vision. 

We are now three-quarters of the way through our financial year and we want to extend our thanks to everyone who’s worked with us over the last nine months. With the end of the financial year fast approaching, we thought we would draw attention to some of our key regulatory priorities for the quarter: 

• Registration: We’ve reviewed our registration requirements and the information we request from providers registered with us. We are asking for some additional information, particularly from service providers, but we don’t believe that it should be difficult to provide. This is important for increasing consumer confidence in phone-paid services and improving the effectiveness of our market analysis. We want to continue to ensure the application of our Code of Practice is as efficient as possible and, of course, support your due diligence on organisations which you are contracting with. We are currently consulting on registration so please do feed back to us so we can take your views on board.
  
  
• Direct buy marketing: we understand that this is a concern for industry. We are in discussion with industry and platforms on how to do this compliantly and with confidence. We aim to publish a short update on this in the coming weeks with a view to developing guidance to support industry in due course.
  
  
• Investigations and enforcement: As part of our ongoing commitment to greater clarity and transparency, we’ll be reviewing how we communicate with industry through our investigations and enforcement procedures. We want it to be clear what stage we are at in the process, what the nature of our contact is and what is expected of providers and why.
  
  Providers tell us that they’d like more clarity around the questions we ask and what the matters we investigate entail. It’s in everyone’s interest for regulatory issues to be resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible. As I’ve said on many occasions, we only use our formal investigatory procedures where there is a need to. Good, clear communication of our expectations is essential in this.
  
  
• Refunds:  Refunds are the top priority for consumers contacting PSA. A simple system of refunds, where they are appropriate, that all parties can have confidence in is key to building trust in phone-paid services. We have started a project aimed at making refunds as simple and effective as possible – whether agreed between provider and consumer or ordered by our Code Adjudication Tribunal. We will be taking that work forward including continuing discussions with industry.
  
  
• Directory enquiries: We’re working with Ofcom towards building a more transparent market for directory enquiry services. There is low consumer awareness of pricing of Directory Enquiry services and that has led to some complaints to us from consumers experiencing bill shock. This is an ongoing piece of work and we hope to consult on proposals in Q1 of 2018/19.
  
  
• Website: We’re looking forward to launching a new website in the coming months. Our aim is to create an attractive and user-friendly website that allows consumers to find important information about phone-paid services. We’ll also be making it easier for you to find out more about our work, industry standards, and the expectations on you.  

And finally just a reminder that we are currently consulting on our Budget and Business Plan for 2018/19 – which sets out our work plans for the next financial year. We will be finalising the Business Plan and submitting the budget to Ofcom for approval in this quarter. 

Of course, these priorities sit alongside all the ongoing work we do to ensure the market remains compliant. We wish you every success for the coming quarter.