If PhonepayPlus investigates your service

PhonepayPlus investigates issues with premium rate services – these could be reported by consumers or industry, or uncovered by PhonepayPlus monitoring.

The procedures we follow

We use different procedures, depending on the severity of the issue.

Minor issues

For minor issues, we refer the case to the Complaint Resolution Team, who:

  • ask you to remedy the problem immediately; or
  • agree an action plan with you to remedy the problem

A minor issue may become a more serious issue if you fail to co-operate with PhonepayPlus.

Serious issues

For more serious issues, we refer the case to the Investigations Team, who:

  • ask you to respond to a formal investigation letter that sets out what rules of the Code appear to have been broken; and
  • refer your case to a Tribunal  to consider whether or not the rules of the Code have been broken

The Tribunal is made up of members of the Code Compliance Panel.

PhonepayPlus Code Compliance Panel
PhonepayPlus Code of Practice and Guidance website

Urgent issues

If the issue requires urgent action, three members of the Code Compliance Panel may place an immediate bar on the service and prevent payment of any due revenue before the case goes to a Tribunal.

Complaints schematic (PDF 847 KB)
Investigations and sanctions procedure (PDF 691 KB)

Tribunal decisions

If a Tribunal decides you have broken the Code of Practice, they can:

  • issue you with a reprimand and/or warning
  • order you to give refunds to consumers
  • fine you – up to a maximum of £250,000 per rule broken
  • bar access to your service
  • require you to obtain compliance advice or permission to run your service; or
  • ban you from running some or all premium rate services

Appeals against a Tribunal decision

If you disagree with a decision made by a Tribunal you can:

  • write to your case officer and ask for a review – for example, if evidence was overlooked by the Tribunal; or
  • ask for your case to be heard in person by an Oral Hearing Tribunal

Procedures relating to Oral Hearings can be found at section 3 of Annex 2 of the Code. The pre-hearing and hearing processes are set out in the guidelines on Oral Hearing processes.

If you disagree with a decision made by an Oral Hearing Tribunal you can appeal to the Independent Appeals Body.

Independent Appeals Body

Records of cases

We keep a record of all our cases which go to a Tribunal, an Oral Hearing Tribunal or the Independent Appeals Body, and publish them in the ‘Adjudications’ section.

Adjudications