ACCC launches action over mobile phone ads in teen magazines

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched legal action against two overseas-based companies for alleged misleading advertising of mobile telephone premium services in Australian teen magazines including <Dolly, Cosmopolitan, Cleo and .

British company AMV Holdings and Bulgaria’s Teracomm are the subject of the legal action under the Trade Practices Act.The consumer watchdog is concerned that the companies’ advertising does not adequately disclose the nature of the services being offered and their costs. The ACCC is particularly worried that consumers responding to the ads could unknowingly subscribe to high-cost, ongoing service when they think they are simply completing a one-off purchase of a ring-tone or wallpaper.ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says young readers are costing themselves or their parents a lot of money by unwittingly signing up to the services.

“Advertisers must not rely on minute fine print to disclose important terms and conditions. The costs and nature of the services must be prominently and clearly identifiable within the advertisement, particularly when it is targeting young people.”

The ACCC has also obtained enforceable undertakings from magazine publishers Pacific Magazines (the publisher of <Girlfriend and ) and ACP Magazines (the publisher ofDolly, Cosmopolitan and ) to improve the overall standard of advertising for mobile premium services.

Both publishers will publish an article in their youth magazines to inform readers of the nature, cost and characteristics of mobile premium services.

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