28 May 2014: PhonepayPlus has today announced a 12 month pilot scheme under which all app stores and Level 2 providers operating inside app stores who are involved, or intend to be involved, in the provision of services through the app stores using a premium rate payment facility, may apply for an exemption from certain provisions of the 12th edition of the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice.
The most significant part of the pilot is that App stores will be able to obtain permission for their Level 2 clients – i.e. app developers and merchants who are offering products for sale – to operate within that App store without the need to register.
Conditions exist around the dis-application of certain parts of the 12th Code including the requirement for consumers to have registered with the App Store and accept the trading terms. For more information on the announcement please click here.
AIME sees this move by PhonepayPlus as very positive, showing that regulation can be flexed to cater for new environments that were not envisaged when the 12th Code was implemented. This will provide consumers with a greater choice of digital products via their smartphones and tablets while extending the protection principles to those consumers and maintaining a regulatory level playing field for the industry.
