EU sweep on ringtone scams includes two Maltese websites

Two websites in Malta have been investigated as part of an EU-wide sweep into websites offering mobile phone services such as ring-tones and wallpapers. The enquiry, which was carried out on more than 500 websites across the 27 Member States, Norway and Iceland, found that 80% of the sites checked, included those in Malta, need to be further investigated for suspected breaches of EU consumer rules.

The results of the investigation were announced by EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

Many of the websites target children and young people. Problems found included: unclear price information where prices were incomplete and did not include taxes, or customers were unaware that they were signing up to a subscription. A large number of websites did not provide some of the required contact information about the trader.

Other problems related to misleading information where key information was hidden in very small print or hard to find on a website or the word "free" was used to mislead consumers into long-term contracts.

More than 495 million mobile phones are owned by Europeans. Ring-tones alone are estimated to make up 29% of the overall "mobile content" market in Europe in 2007 (about 10% higher than 2006). The value of European ring-tone sales in 2007 was estimated at €691 million.

Seven countries - Norway, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Iceland, Romania and Greece – have published the names of the websites which they found to have irregularities.

National authorities will contact the traders responsible for the websites, telling them to correct irregularities or face legal action.