2Ergo fined £50k, regulator 'concerned' by their breach history

It’s Fine Day today — the UK regulator, PhonepayPlus published details of the companies that it has fined for breach of its regulations last month. Most of the fines are 5,000 or 10,000… small beer, really, especially compared to last month’s 175,000 pound whopper fine for SMS.ac.

2Ergo is banished to the naughty step as a result of one of it’s clients operating a rather suspect free text online service that charges users £1.50/fortnight and whose server appeared to misunderstand the ‘STOP’ opt-out command, a huge no-no when it comes to the PhonepayPlus regulator panel. Effectively, once you signed up, you couldn’t unsubscribe…

2Ergo were reportedly quick at reacting when the regulator came-a-knocking and this stood them in good stead when it came to working out the value of the fine. However:

In coming to its decision on the level of fine to impose, the Panel was particularly concerned by the service provider’s breach history, noting that this was the fourth time within the past year that breaches had been upheld against this service provider.

Deary me. Not good!