On 9 April entered into force of changes effected by Decree-Law no. 63/2009 of 10 March to Decree-Law no. 175/99 of 21 May, which regulates the advertising of audiotext services, as well as Decree-Law no. 177/99 of 21 May, which established the regime of access to and the exercise of the activity of provider of audiotext services.
These amendments extend the legal regime governing the publicity and the provision of audio services to message-based (SMS, MMS) value added services, with the aim of strengthening user rights.
Therefore, providers of message-based value added services are required to register with ANACOM and must also identify the services which they intend to provide and the general conditions applicable to such provision. Following this registration, the providers shall be allocated different access codes, depending on the nature and content of the services.
At the same time, information on the conditions of provision of these services must be communicated to users in a timely and clear manner. Meanwhile, it is explicitly established that the electronic communications service which is used for sending the message cannot be suspended as a result of any failure to pay for the value added service. The provider of supporting communications must also bar access to message-based value added services where this is requested by the user.
Compliance with these and other rules, resulting from the new text of Decree-Law no. 177/99 of 21 May, will become subject, as has been the case with audiotext, to supervision by ANACOM.
The Directorate-General for the Consumer (Direcção-Geral do Consumidor) is in turn responsible for enforcing compliance with the rules on advertising for message-based value added services, due to the changes introduced by Decree-Law no. 63/2009 of 10 March to Decree-Law no. 175/99 of 21 May.
Consult:
- Decree-Law no. 63/2009, of 10 March https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=900104
- Message-based value added services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=327355
