Consultation on a Statement of Application in relation to charitable donations

Working with payment intermediaries and charities, PhonepayPlus used facilities within the Code to allow a pilot scheme involving a small number of charities to test the following:

• The use of a SKIP facility, allowing subscribers to text SKIP to miss a month’s subscription payment, but without opting out of the ongoing donation entirely;
  
• Dis-application of the requirement  at rule 2.3.12(d)(v) of the Code to remind consumers of the STOP command each month, replacing it with a requirement to remind consumers every three months, and
  
• Dis-application of the requirement for PRS-based charitable donations operating on a subscription basis to seek permission to operate where the donation exceeded £4.50 in any given 7-day period.

PhonepayPlus now proposes to make these changes permanent, with the following conditions:

• Requirements for all services to be run by registered charities, and to operate on specified 7-series shortcodes
• Requirements around the transparency of promotional material, and a requirement to send consumers an initiation text message upon signing up, which must contain the following:
  i.    Information that the text is free
  ii.    STOP information which must read “to unsubscribe text STOP to [insert shortcode] at any time or call [insert number
  iii.    SKIP information which reads “to miss a gift text SKIP to [insert shortcode]”
• Requirement that only the keyword SKIP is used to facilitate the skipping of a month’s payment
• Requirement that the STOP command is available at all times, and that no alternative method of exit to STOP is used
• Requirement that consumers who text SKIP in 3 consecutive months must be immediately given the option to stop or continue, and be unsubscribed if they do not positively respond within 24 hours.

The full consultation can be seen by clicking on the link here.

PhonepayPlus welcomes responses by the 12th December 2013.