ICSTIS fine Opera £250k over GMTV fiasco

Link: ICSTIS Consumer – Adjudications

Remember the GMTV fiasco? The TV broadcasters telecoms provider Opera has just been fined £250k by regulator ICSTIS and been issued a ban for running premium services for 12 months (rather sadly suspended for 12 months on condition they ‘clean up their act’) for their part in the scandal

Having had a brief scan of the rather wordy adjudication, a few things are interesting. ICSTIS, given the choice, would have imposed a fine a lot higher than £250k. However, they’re stuck with that cap – and can’t go above it. As well as the fine, and having been well and truely slapped hard by ICSTIS, they’ve been told they can’t run *any* premium services for twelve months – but get this: it’s been suspended on the condition that they play fair from now on, have an audit of procedures, etc etc.

If ICSTIS are trying to persuade consumers to regain confidence in premium telephony and SMS, they should have banished GMTV and Opera from the face of the planet. This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill minor ‘cock-up’ – it’s a multi-million pound fraud that both parties knew damn well about. Even if they refund everyone concerned (which is highly unlikely, as let’s face it – most consumers aren’t going to bother trying to get their cash back), the damage has been done.

Even now, ICSTIS are concerned about Opera and their future conduct. It remains to see whether they’ll be able to play fair in the future – but for now, in my opinion, they’ve got off lightly.