Consultations

As our response is guided and supported by Members’ input, and where the term “Members” is used this refers to those Members who engaged with us during the consultation process. Some views may be expressed that are not necessarily those of the aimm Executive or aimm’s Board of Directors. aimm welcomes the opportunity to respond to the PSR Call for Evidence. To assist aimm in providing a comprehensive input to the review, aimm communicated with its Members in the following manner;

• Whole Membership online workshops
• Written input from Members
• One-to-one telephone discussions

Information gathered from all those who attended meetings/submitted feedback in all these ways is presented below. aimm Members who operate in the phone-paid services markets are broadly split into seven categories although there is some overlap inside individual Member businesses.

• Fixed Line Networks who can be Fixed line Intermediaries
• Mobile Networks
• Mobile Intermediaries
• Merchant providers of traditional Premium Rate Services i.e. fixed line, Premium SMS, and Direct Carrier Billing (paying for digital content/services by adding the amount payable to your phone bill)
• Broadcasters (who are often Merchant providers)
• Charities and Charity enablers (who are often Merchant providers)
• Industry Support companies

aimm sought responses from Members across the Network Operators, Intermediary community, Merchant community, Third Party Verification and Anti-Fraud Specialists, Broadcasters and Charities and in this paper varying views are represented.

The broad operating context for this Business Plan and Budget has been established through successful delivery of our Strategic Purpose. Code 15 will come into force on 5 April 2022, and our focus for 2022/23 will be in ensuring that it delivers in practice its designed overall aims: • achieving compliance in the market through standards being met, rather than through assessing impact against outcomes • preventing consumer harm from happening in the first place, rather than dealing with it after it has happened • providers finding the Code simpler and easier to comply with • delivering smarter enforcement to underpin the effectiveness of the Code. As we set out to achieve in our Business Plan for 2021/22, we have delivered on two main fronts during the year: • we have developed a new Code of Practice, which when it comes into effect in April 2022 will best serve consumer interests in the current and expected market landscape • we have continued to enhance our existing regulatory effectiveness, through applying Code 14 in ways that have successfully reduced the levels of consumer harm

"The purpose of this consultation document is to set out the context to the draft Code of Practice and our proposals, and to seek feedback and comments from consumers, industry and other stakeholders on these. We want to ensure that our decisions are based on a sound understanding and accurate assessment of all available information and evidence and informed by stakeholder input. In 2020, the PSA launched a comprehensive review of our Code of Practice. The market had changed fundamentally over the ten years since the previous comprehensive review. Consumer expectations had changed and outcomes-based regulation had not kept pace. We have developed a new Code on which we are now consulting which raises expectations in the market by introducing regulatory Standards, focuses on the prevention of harm rather than cure, and is simpler to implement and comply with. We are replacing outcomes with ten regulatory Standards. These are a clear articulation of PSA and consumers’ expectations of the market and providers. They will raise standards in the way services are offered and delivered. By introducing supervisory powers and clearer registration and verification, Code 15 will shift focus to prevent harm rather than enforcing outcomes after harm has occurred. Consumers should have confidence that the services they buy will deliver what they expect. For industry, we will support you to deliver good services for consumers. Code 15 will enable us to use our limited resources more effectively. Code 15 will be transformative. It is a new approach to regulation that will benefit consumers and industry. It is a Code for a mature market." aimm worked closely with all our members about the consultation to ensure that all feedback and concerns regarding this new Code were represented, and aimm met with PSA to discuss members concerns throughout the consultation period. We submitted our response to the consultation on the 5th July 2021.

The draft Business Plan and Budget sets out PSA's priorities, proposed activity and required budget for FY21/22.

This report has been prepared by Fladgate LLP on behalf of the Association for Interactive Media and Micropayments (aimm) in connection with aimm’s response to a ‘Discussion Paper’ published by the Phone paid Services Authority (PSA) on 27 February 2020 (Discussion Paper). The purpose of this report is to inform PSA’s approach to its revised Code of Practice and, more fundamentally, help it assess whether the structure of PRS regulation in the UK needs to be revisited. To that extent, our review of the countries covered below has demonstrated that there are a number of differing approaches to the fundamental question of how to ensure regulation protects consumers and also contributes to (rather than hindering) a vibrant and dynamic PRS industry.