Campaign Guidance - Luxembourg

Luxembourg Campaign Guidance

Please take note of the regulator The Luxembourg Regulatory Institute.

Campaign

When creating a campaign in Luxembourg, you should:

Be clear and transparent about the product or service the consumer is about to purchase.
Ensure all promotional material, messages and content are displayed in the local language - English French, German, Luxembourgish or Portuguese can be used.
Be upfront and clear about the costs to the consumer in Euro (€), before they make a purchase. Depending on the price will depend on how the tariff is displayed, for example:

Services costing users €6 per week or more: “6XXXX – Join / Subscribe to [name of Service and optional description, maximum of 35 characters] for [cost of Service in €] per [billing frequency], excluding SMS”

Example: “6XXXX – Join Club Ringtones for €6 per week, excluding SMS”.

Do not state “excluding SMS” when there is no SMS MO required for the User to make use of the Service (excluding opt-in and Opt-out SMS). Optionally, these services may use the wording for “services costing Users 6 € per week or more”.

Services costing users less than €6 per week: The wording is “6XXXX – Join / Subscribe to [name of Service and optional description maximum of 35 characters] for [cost per SMS received in €], max [number of SMS] SMS per [billing frequency]”.

Example: “6XXXX – Join Club News for €0.35/SMS received, max 10 SMS per week”.

Clearly state if it is a subscription service.
Make consumers aware of exactly how and by what means they will receive the product or service.
Be very clear about how the consumer can opt-out or otherwise cancel the service. The word STOP must be displayed in capitals.
Include the name of the service provider on the landing page.
You must display the below in the top right corner of your landing page, the following wording, the text size must be similar or at least one third of the biggest font used -

FR: “Abonnement: [cost of Service in €] par [billing frequency]”

DE: “Abonnement: [cost of Service in €] pro [billing frequency]”

You must include a tick box next to at least one “continue” button representing part of the subscription’s approval process. Next to the tick box, the following words must be displayed:

FR: “En cochant cette case, je souscrit a l’abonnement [name of subscription]”.

DE: “Indem ich dieses Kästchen markiere , schliesse ich ein Abonnement [name of subscription] ab”.

EN: “By ticking this box, you subscribe to the subscription [name of subscription]”.

The “continue” button may not lead to the next steps of the subscription approval process unless the user ticks the box. It cannot be pre-ticked, the user must do this.

Include a Full Terms and Conditions link, which is visible on the main web page.
Include a customer care phone number.

Competitions are not allowed via premium billing in Luxembourg and there are strict rules in relation to prize draws.

Language - A language selector could be added to the landing page or adapt the service depending on the user's web browser language. The language must be consistent. If the landing page is in one language, all the rest of the communications should use the same language (T&C, Welcome SMS, charged SMSs, Free SMS and reminders etc).

Specific Services

Competitions - These must be:

Free of additional charges (standard SMS), unless these are clearly indicated in the publicity material.
If there is no additional charge, the content provider must offer participants reimbursement of their Premium payment.
Competitions must comply with Luxembourg legislation, particularly the Law of 20 April 1977 (games of chance and betting on sporting events), Articles 301 and 302 of the Penal Code, and the Law of 30 July 2002 (unfair competition).

Pursuant to the Law of 30 July 2002:

The content provider must permit users to participate in competitions without any obligation to purchase.
The regulations for a competition must be submitted to a bailiff prior to any marketing and communicated free of charge to any person who so requests.
The number of prizes, the value thereof, and the conditions of participation must be communicated clearly and precisely.
If the communication leads the user to believe that they have won a prize, the content provider must deliver the prize to the user in question.

Chat

We can provide short codes that only charge the MO and not the MT SMS. Then you can operate a chat service by charging the SMS sent by the end users, without subscription.

Marketing

There are several different marketing methods available in Luxembourg, however you must ensure that you do not mis-lead consumers, advertise a service using an unrelated banner or state that something is free, when that is not the case. You will need to provide our Compliance Team with information on your marketing plans, along with copies of any and all banners that you intend to use.

If you plan to use the customer's details to market to them in the future, you must gain permission from the user and ensure that you provide them with a clear and simple method to opt-out.

Any MSISDN that does not receive any SMS MT for 2 consecutive months must be considered as an Opt-out and you can no longer market to the consumer.

Opt-in Flows

MO opt-in - MO premium short code are used for all one-off payments (E.g. when you need to buy codes to unlock contents in an online game or for TV/radio shows contests)
PIN opt-in - This can only be used for the network POST, for online purchases, with a required tick box confirmation
Web opt-in requiring a reply - This is possible, where the consumer enters their mobile number online, into your campaign, this triggers an SMS to be sent to the consumer which contains the regulatory information and keyword, the user will need to send the keyword back to complete the subscription and start the billing.

Please note; Click2SMS is not an option, end users must type the content of the message themselves confirming a subscription. If you are found using this method, it could result in a permanent suspension.

Message Flow

Double opt-in: This is used for the web opt-in requiring a reply and must contain the price, service name, support and help information.

PIN: You must provide the PIN code via a non-premium short code, we will provide this to you.

Welcome: This free message must be sent confirming the name, the price, payment frequency of the service and how to opt-out.

EN: You have subscribed to {name of service} for €X per week. To cancel send STOP to XXXXX. {Company name}. Help? 0XXXXXXX

Billing: There is no set format, however you must ensure that you include the service name, content and support information, please make multiple billed messages different, so that consumes know they are meant to receive 2. The billed messages are charged at €3 per message.

For subscription services, if you want to charge €6, then you will send 2 messages charged at €3 each. For example:

EN: Message1of2. Service name. {Content here}. Help?
EN: Message 2of2. Service name. {Content here}. Help?

Reminder: A free message must be sent at least once per month if your subscription service charges €0.50 or more per SMS MT, or costs users €6 or more per week:

FR: Vous avez dépensé €X en un mois pour votre abonnement au Club {service name} de {sevice provider}. Pour vous désinscrire, envoyez STOP au 6XXXX. Helpline 2XXXXXX
DE: Die Ausgaben dieses Monats für ihr Abonnement des Clubs {service name} betragen €X. Zum abbestellen des Dienstes, senden Sie STOP an die 6XXXX. Helpline 2XXXXXX
EN: You have spent €X this month for your subscription to Club {sevice name} from {service provider}. To leave, sms STOP to 6XXXX. Helpline 2XXXXXX

If the service costs the same price each week - subscription price is €3/SMS, 3 SMS/week or €9/week, then you can use this written form as well, you do not need to have the exact cost for the month included.

Stop: A confirmation message must be sent when the consumer cancels the service.

DE: Du bist vom SMS Abo jetzt abgemeldet {service name}
EN: You are now logged out of the SMS subscription {service name}

Please note, any MSISDN that does not receive your SMS MT during 2 consecutive months must be considered as an Opt-out. This prevents unsolicited messages, as Luxembourg mobile operators may reallocate a MSISDN that is not being used.

On request you must be able to provide proof of opt-in to the subscription or consent for a particular user or MSISDN.

Customer care / Refund Policy

All service providers must have a detailed Customer Care Process and Refund Policy in place.

You need to ensure that the process is in place for consumers to gain help should they require it, along with a refund policy for those that require one or are eligible for one.

This will be discussed in detail, to ensure that our customer care team can resolve any queries that are received from the networks or regulator.

Our support team may need to ask you for a log file of all the messages you have sent and received from the consumer, this needs to be provided within 48 hours of the request being sent. Please ensure that you have systems in place to provide this data.

Please note that if a mobile operator receives more than four formal user complaints during one week, concerning your mobile service, Luxembourg’s mobile operators may suspend the mobile service in question, withhold payments, refund users, and charge you with any cost incurred to investigate the user complaint.

Question? Speak with our Compliance Team for any advice for this or any other market.