Cullen International has recently updated its benchmarks on the regulation of premium rate services (PRS) in Europe. The benchmarks now also provide details of the rules applying in Poland and Portugal, bringing the coverage to a total of twelve countries.

Our three PRS benchmarks provide an overview of the regulatory framework for these services in the 12 countries studied, focusing on transparency measures and rules on advertising, the barring of calls or texts to PRS numbers, and rules on pricing.

For premium SMS services, our benchmark shows that, in most countries studied, a cap applies to the price per message or per service. By contrast, very few countries apply specific pricing rules to voice PRS.

PRS allow subscribers to access a diverse number of services, typically information and entertainment, using only, for example, their mobile phone. These contents are subsequently charged to the subscribers' account and tend to be more expensive than a normal phone call or text message. 

For more information or access to the benchmarks, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our European Consumer Protection in Telecoms service.