Premium rate services

The Royal Decree of 12 December 2018 determining the applicable obligations relating to the provision of premium rate services, referred to in Article 116/1, § 2, of the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications lays down a series of obligations applicable to persons providing premium rate services.

The Royal Decree distinguishes three categories of premium rate services, defined in its Article 2:

• 1st category: Premium rate telephone service using a long premium rate number from the Belgian numbering plan E.164, i.e. the service which, by means of equipment connected to an electronic communications network, enables the caller to obtain information, send back information, contact other users of the information service, access to games and other advantages or pay for products and/or services offered during the call or as a direct result of the call, on payment of a compensation higher than the normal end-user tariff for a call to a standard or mobile geographic number.

• 2nd category: Premium rate service using a short premium rate number, particularly a subscription service, an alerting service or a chat service.

• 3rd category: Fund-raising services, services consisting in the organisation of games, contests or quizzes which do not consist in media games, services providing applications to customise a telephone.

The Royal Decree sets out the rules concerning each one of these categories. You will find below the references to the Articles imposing obligations on providers of premium rate services, broken down by category of service and theme.

Rules applicable to all types of premium rate services

Articles 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9 and Article 10 shall apply.

• Publicity - Article 5
• Premium rate service provided in an honest, fair and transparent manner - Articles 6 and 7
• Customer service and complaints - Articles 8 and 9
• End of the provision of the service - Article 10

Rules applicable to premium rate services of the 2nd category

Articles 11, 12 and 13, 14, 15 and 16, 17 to 20, and 21 and 22 shall apply.

• Publicity - Article 11
• Order, registration, subscription - Articles 12 and 13
• Information to provide before the provision of the service - Article 14
• Invoicing - Articles 15 and 16
• End of the provision of the service - Articles 17 to 20
• Provision of a chat service - Articles 21 and 22

Rules applicable to premium rate services of the 3rd category

Articles 23 and 24 to 33 shall apply.

• Publicity - Article 23
• Organisation of games, contests and quizzes - Articles 24 to 33