August 6, 2018

The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) has introduced new Special conditions for society lotteries services using phone payment.

The new conditions are set to come into effect on the 1 October 2018 and will complement the PSA’s existing Code of Practice. Several large charities and associations offered views during the consultation phase.

The PSA explains that society lotteries are an emerging service type in the phone-paid services market that allow charities and other organisations, such as local clubs and community centres, to raise money by charging supporters for entry to raffle-style competitions.

A growing number of these are being offered digitally, with payments being charged to participants’ phone bills.

As the PSA is responsible for regulating content, goods and services charged to a phone bill, the regulator says it is “supporting providers in bringing these services to market within a framework that will help build consumer confidence”.

A special short-code operating on numbers beginning 72 has been established for society lotteries. This follows on from the introduction of the 70 short-code for charity text donations, which has successfully raised millions of pounds for good causes in the UK over the last few years.

There were ten responses to the PSA policy consultation on the proposed Special conditions, which opened in February 2018. Following consideration of the feedback received during the consultation period, the conditions have remained largely the same as originally proposed. There were some changes to the proposed conditions governing promotional material, which can be read in the document published by the PSA. To access the document, click here.