Consumer Authority imposes a fine for misuse of MSN log-in details in the advertisement of ringtones

The Consumer Authority has imposed a fine of EUR 85,000 on the company OX-2 International. This company runs a number of websites which feature advertisements for SMS services offered by providers of ringtones or quizzes. In order to qualify to receive a prize or ringtone, visitors to the website were required to provide their MSN username and password. OX-2 misused these details to subsequently send unsolicited messages containing adverts for free ringtones or competitions, with the result that the e-mails appeared as though they came from a contact. In order to receive the 'free' ringtone or to win the prize, the recipient had to sign up to a paid subscription by SMS. Marije Hulshof, Director of the Consumer Authority explains: "This company used consumer names to send e-mails to their friends which contained a dubious offer and this misled the recipient as to the content and the reliability of the offer. This is a particularly nasty practice. Consumers must be able to have confidence in the fact that their address details and those of their MSN contacts will not be misused. We are therefore taking action to put a stop to this."

OX-2 International is a company known as an 'affiliate', which is a party that displays advertising on its website on behalf of other companies. In each instance that an agreement comes into being via this website, the affiliate receives a fee. For this purpose, the company used four websites, namely, realtonekado.nl, jijwint.nl, winps3.nl and Iphonegame.nl, which contained advertisements for ringtones and competitions from Celldorado and Wixawin. As visitors to these sites were requested to submit their MSN username and password in order to receive a free ringtone or to have a chance of winning a prize, OX-2 was able to use these details to send messages containing advertisements to a person's contacts using their address list. This message was not recognisable as advertising due to the fact that the e-mail appeared to the recipient as having come from one of their contacts.

A fine of EUR 85,000 was imposed because it was not always clear to consumers as to which company was responsible for the websites and how the company in question could be contacted in the event of a complaint. In addition, the fact that the e-mails were not recognisable as advertising and were sent without the consent of the recipient meant that the rules governing advertising via the internet were breached. The Consumer Authority has also imposed an incremental penalty payment in order to put an end to the aforementioned violations.

This case began following complaints made by consumers to ConsuWijzer and it is the outcome of cooperation between OPTA (the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority [de Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Autoriteit]) and the Consumer Authority. As the company had breached the legal obligations regarding information to be provided via the internet, the Consumer Authority decided to take action. It is entitled to do this in accordance with the cooperation protocol that was concluded between both enforcement authorities in 2007 in relation to areas in which their respective powers overlap.