The regulator said that callers who were prevented by
Opera from having any chance of winning competitions had lost £20
million on the phone lines. It said that 18 million people had paid
for calls which were received after potential winners had been
picked by Opera.
"The sums of money involved were gigantic: with the average cost
of a call being well over £1, the revenue generated by callers with
no hope of winning appears to have been in excess of £20 million,"
said ICSTIS in its submission to the oral hearing of the case. "It
was the worst case which ICSTIS had come across in terms of the
numbers of consumers affected and the amount of money at
stake."
Though the regulator has banned Opera from operating
competitions for a year, that ban has been suspended to give Opera
time to overhaul its management structures and procedures. It will
be re-evaluated by ICSTIS in three months' time and will be lifted
altogether if ICSTIS approves the changes, said an ICSTIS
spokeswoman.
Opera ran the GMTV phone, text and internet competitions for
four years but was fired after an investigation by television
programme Panorama exposed problems with the process. It found that
finalists in the competition for cash prizes were chosen and sent
to GMTV before the phone lines were closed. Subsequent callers,
therefore, had no chance to win the competition.
“Our Hearing Panel found clear evidence of fundamental failings
within Opera Telecom," said ICSTIS chief executive George Kidd.
"The company showed a reckless disregard for the interests of
callers, with scant evidence of any attention being given to
compliance with our Code of Practice."
"The consumer harm caused was aggravated by the sheer number of
callers who paid to enter the competition but had no chance of
winning, the huge amount of revenue that was unfairly generated
from these callers, the length of time over which the practice had
been going on and the extensive damage caused to public trust in
phone-in competitions," he said.
Premium rate television phone in competitions have been the
subject of controversy this year, starting with a competition on
Channel 4's Richard and Judy show, which was found also to allow
callers to pay to enter when they had no opportunity to win.
"The decisions we’ve announced today are part of a wider
examination of events," said Kidd. "Today’s adjudication sends a
clear message to any company offering phone-paid services: your
absolute responsibility is to the public who use your services.
Cutting corners for the sake of convenience or to boost revenues is
simply unacceptable and has serious consequences."
Ofcom is also investigating the GMTV competitions, and any Ofcom
fine is expected to be far higher than the £250,000 levied on
Opera.
ICSTIS has issued fines totalling £197,500 in recent weeks over
other competition irregularities on UK television.
OUT-LAW is running a series of free
breakfast seminars across the UK in October that explain the
legal regime for free draws and prize competitions.
