Spanish mobile users who find a bill entry for additional-rate services, premium messages or an unremembered subscription can stop those charges at source. Customers in Spain may ask their operator, free of charge, to disconnect additional-rate services, including SMS-based ones. The right has existed in telecoms regulation since 2002; it is arguably the most effective remedy and one of the least known.
- Key Point: Price caps are fixed: single premium messages reach 1.20 euros per service, costlier one-offs 1.20–6 euros, subscriptions 1.20 euros per received message, and adult services up to 6 euros.
- Key Point: Consent is meant to be explicit: costly services, subscriptions and adult content require a free pre-charge message naming the provider, giving a support number, describing the service, stating the tax-inclusive total and explaining cancellation; silence means refusal.
- Key Point: Blocking is free and time-bound: operators must disconnect additional-rate services within 10 days and bear the cost if they miss the deadline for reasons not attributable to the customer; bills must remind users every six months.
What premium SMS covers, and what each number costs
A premium SMS adds a service charge to the ordinary text price for contests, television votes, content or subscriptions. Order ITC/308/2008 of the BOE places them in the additional-rate category and ties short-number prefixes to maximum prices. Prefixes 25, 27 and 280 — the last for charity campaigns — cover one-off messages capped at 1.20 euros per service. Prefixes 35 and 37 handle costlier single messages, from 1.20 to 6 euros. Prefixes 795 and 797 are subscriptions, billed at 1.20 euros for every message received; 995 and 997 are adult services up to 6 euros. The subscription row is dangerous: not one debit but a drip of individually charged messages until the user unsubscribes.
Consent rules, and how unwanted bills happen
On paper, providers cannot enrol people silently. For priciest services, subscriptions and adult content, a free pre-charge message must name the company, give a support telephone, describe the service, state the full price with taxes and explain cancellation, and invite confirmation; no reply counts as refusal. The 2015 Order IET/1196/2015, incorporated into consolidated Order ITC/308/2008, added that consent is valid only when confirmed by a message from the user’s own number, that automatic dialling is invalid even when an installed app triggers it, and that subscriptions require manually dialling the short code. Web sign-ups must authenticate the phone with an SMS containing the price.
Unwanted charges usually arrive by three routes: a website or advertisement asking for the number and a code; a message inviting a keyword reply; or a malicious app that sends texts by itself. The first two resemble phishing lures, the third belongs to the trojan and malware family. The rules are well drafted but poorly known: they forbid nearly all abusive practice, yet they rely on the user spotting the charge and complaining. Anyone who never reads the bill pays.
Free disconnection, then the claim route
The telecoms user rights charter, Real Decreto 899/2009, obliges operators under article 24 to guarantee disconnection of at least international calls and additional-rate services. Order ITC/308/2008 extends this to message-based additional-rate services, covering premium SMS. Request the block by writing, telephone or electronic means and keep the reference number or receipt the operator must supply. Disconnection must happen within 10 days; if it fails for reasons not attributable to the customer, the operator bears the cost. Exercise is free under Order PRE/361/2002. Bills must remind users at least every six months under the same article. Those wanting to keep donating by SMS to charity campaigns may ask about range-based blocking where the network allows it, but full disconnection is safer.
According to the Telecoms User Office, detailed bills must separate telephone-service charges from other services such as additional-rate billing, and premium SMS must split ordinary and premium portions. If the premium part is disputed, withholding it can only suspend the additional-rate service — not the line or normal SMS — provided amounts properly owed are paid. Complain first to the operator by phone, internet, post or shop, and obtain a reference number; for a telephone complaint, ask for a confirming document. If no answer arrives within one month, or the reply is unsatisfactory, the user has three months to go to the ministry’s telecoms user office.
The law offers a free, powerful exit from premium billing; its weakness is reliance on awareness after the fact. A request to the operator, made before the next charge becomes a recurring line, remains the cheapest protection.