Mobile phone giant in saucy pictures row

By Peter Chapman

Date: 10/11/04

VODAFONE, the world's biggest mobile phone company, has changed its marketing strategy in Germany after complaints from customers who were sent pornographic pictures without asking for them.

Protests were made to the European Commission after the firm's German operation sent sexually explicit pictures and logos to subscribers promoting its multimedia messaging service (MMS), which allows users to access music clips, sport and other content.

Adult subscribers were sent a taster sample of sexually explicit shots available from its bilder&logos product - which allows users equipped with MMS technology to download images for viewing on the handsets.

The firm offered adult services in at least four campaigns conducted between December 2003 and February 2004.

Finnish Commissioner Olli Rehn stepped in after customers and MEPs, including Green Hiltrud Breyer, complained that the messages were sent to people who had no interest in receiving the pornographic material and found the pictures offensive.

Rehn, who took over the information society dossier after his compatriot Erkki Liikanen resigned to head the Finnish central bank, demanded an explanation of this apparent breach of EU data protection rules by one of the Union's most powerful firms.

A directive on data protection over electronic networks, which entered into force last year, states that customers can only be sent sales pitches if companies have already received prior authorization, known in the jargon as an 'opt-in'.

Vodafone told the Commission that it had obtained general permission from subscribers to send them marketing information via MMS.

Moreover, it said that all of the targeted customers had been adults - defined in Germany as citizens above the age of 18 - when the messages were sent.

Rehn said that "under these circumstances" there was no technical breach of the EU directive.

But in a written answer to the European Parliament, he said: "Vodafone has recently modified this policy and now requires a specific opt-in for adult content services."

Rehn said that customers were free to contact Germany's Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit - the relevant body for complaints - if they were still unhappy with their experience.

Hiltrud Breyer said she was "very happy" with the company's response. "It shows that often it is necessary to make companies like Vodafone more sensitive. I wonder if they thought about their customers before they did this kind of thing. I was approached by several women's groups that felt pestered by being sent pictures."

Vodafone, which launches its advanced '3G' services in Britain this week, said it was unable to comment on the issue before European Voice went to press.

The European Commission found that Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone company, was not breaching the EU directive on data protection over electronic networks when sending pornographic pictures to customers in Germany without asking them. The company, however, changed its marketing strategy in Germany after complaints from customers led to an inquiry by the Commission.