AMV Holding Limited - UK Company No 05811953 - s.87B undertaking

AMV Holding Limited (UK Company number 05811953) (AMV) is a mobile premium services content service provider.

Its products are advertised in youth magazines in Australia under the name “Bling”.

The matter was settled by consent on 7 April 2009. Justice Moore made declarations that AMV engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in contravention of sections 52 and 53(aa), (e) and (g) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 by:

• representing that any consumer responding to the BLiNG Advertisements would, by sending an SMS message at a standard SMS cost to the premium number 19 44 00, purchase a one-off service, (for example, one ringtone, wallpaper or game), when in fact, the consumer;
• in sending an SMS to the premium number 19 44 00, requests access to a subscription service in relation to which an initial sign-up fee of $4 and a subscription fee of between $4 - $8 per week which are billed to his or her mobile telephone account;
• requires a WAP enabled mobile telephone to receive any service advertised by the BLiNG Advertisements; and
• incurs standard SMS and data costs levied by his or her telecommunications service provider in addition to the weekly subscription fee;
• failing to clearly and prominently bring to the attention of consumers that in order to end a subscription, the consumer must send an SMS message to the content provider which contains the word “stop”; and
• representing that the sounds being promoted for consumers to acquire as ringtones were sounds of original recordings of well known songs when in fact the sounds are reproductions of well known songs.

During settlement negotiations AMV offered the ACCC an 87B undertaking as an alternative of the ACCC seeking injunctions.

Under the terms of the undertaking, AMV will, for a period of 4 years:

• communicate clearly the nature of Content services being advertised or promoted, particularly if they are subscription services
• communicate clearly, using sufficiently large font size and in close proximity to the number to be called, the relevant costs
• not promote in the same advertisement multiple content services that have different terms and conditions
• clearly and prominently state where ringtones are not recordings of the original songs
• ensure that the nature of the content services, the terms and conditions and the instructions on how to stop receiving services are printed in black text on a white background which is not obscured by colour or design.