Two Maltese websites under EU investigation

Two Maltese websites providing mobile phone services such as ring-tones and wallpapers are being investigated by the EU and the local competition authorities for breaches of EU consumer protection laws.

Although the two websites have not been named yet, as further investigations are needed, sources close to the EU said that "there are only two companies offering these type of services in Malta".

The investigation forms part of an EU-wide clampdown on ring-tone scams and involved an inquiry involving over 500 websites across the 27 EU member states, Norway and Iceland.

Following the first phase of this verification, the Commission found that 80 per cent of the sites checked had to be further investigated for suspected breaches of EU consumer rules.

The problems found include unclear price information where prices are incomplete or do not include taxes, misleading information with key information hidden in small print and the use of the word "free" to mislead customers into long-term contracts.

EU Consumers Commissioner Maglena Kuneva told a press conference in Brussels that the EU-wide action, called Sweep, is a direct response to hundreds of complaints by consumers.

"Far too many people are falling victim to costly surprises from mystery charges, fees and ring-tone subscriptions they learn about for the first time when they see their mobile phone bill."

The Maltese part of the investigation is being led by the Consumer and Competition Division which is now expected to ask the two Maltese companies to clarify and correct the identified problems. Failure to do so can result in legal action leading to fines or closure of their websites.

Mobile phone services are considered to be big business in the EU.

As there are more than 495 million mobile phone users in the EU, ring-tones alone are estimated to have made up 29 per cent of the overall mobile content market in Europe in 2007 with sales value of €691 million.