ACCAN Informed Consent Project (21 August 2009)

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4.4. Flawed consent process

• Case study 4 – [from CTN]

In the Project Survey, caseworker organisations and regulators reported a moderate to high volume of complaints regarding flawed consent processes. This typically covers situations where consent was obtained at the wrong stage in the process (e.g. after a consumer had already transferred their service or been subscribed to a new service) or where consent was intended to only cover one service but had been applied more broadly. This category also covers situations where organisations have deliberately confused / disguised the consent process with other information (such as competition entries).

Flawed consent processes are prevalent in the MPS sector and have led to consumer advocacy organisations demanding double opt-in processes to be adopted.

Case study 4 – [from CTN]

Complaint: Ms S. received a scratch card in the mail. The card consisted of two panels. The card said that if she could unscramble a word from the first panel she would win a prize. She scratched the first panel and unscrambled the word ‘cat’. The card said that if she wins she could scratch the second panel to reveal her prize. The second panel instructed her to call a 190 number. She called this number and was put onto a recorded message for four minutes. She later found out that she was charged $2.97 per minute for this call. She was finally asked to key in her unscrambled word, she keyed in ‘cat’. She was given a PIN and instructed to SMS her PIN to a particular number. It was later found out that by messaging this number she was signing up to an MPS subscription service. She was sent messages on an on going basis, she was charged for each of the messages sent to her at a premium rate. These messages gave her instructions on how to claim her free gift valued at $50. After investigation by authorities this gift was found to be $50 worth of Mobile Premium Content.

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