Last year PhonepayPlus issued fines totalling £360,000 but this year had already issued £223,500 of fines by March. The average fine size has also increased by almost 50%, rising from £10,909 last year to £14,900 in the first three months of this year.
"There are clear rules when it comes to the promotion, content and delivery of mobile phone paid services," said George Kidd, Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus. "We expect these rules to be followed and any failings of compliance will be punished."
Premium rate phone lines were at the centre of the television competition scandals last year that resulted in large fines for every UK terrestrial broadcaster. ITV is still awaiting a fine from broadcast regulator Ofcom which is expected to be £4 million.
PhonepayPlus has announced a review of the £350 million market, investigating abuses of customers using premium rate numbers. It said that particular problems that it would investigate include number operators failing to obey the 'STOP' command from users of subscription services and the use of terms suggesting content is free and unsolicited messages.
Premium rate numbers are increasingly being used for mobile phone services, it said. The proportion of numbers used has nearly doubled since last year, with 45% of numbers being used for mobile services.
Operators of premium rate mobile services are disproportionately the subject of user complaints. PhonepayPlus said that 80% of the complaints received this year have been about mobile services, a 40% increase on last year's figures for the same period.
The regulator said that it plans to publish the report in July.
