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Rules and Conditions for Mobile Value-Added Services

Firstly: Service Advertising and Promotional Offers:

The mobile value-added services (MVASs) providers must abide by the following controls on advertising services or announcing relevant promotional offers:

  • The service advertising message must include the following:
  • The price of the service or offer.
  • The method of accounting (daily, monthly, etc. …).
  • How the user will be charged if the user’s balance is not sufficient for the service cost.
  • How the user can subscribe to the service.
  • When advertising the service, the advertising message must include the accounting type, whether it is one-off service (for which the customer will be charged once to be deducted from the balance, or a periodic subscription (daily, monthly, etc.).
  • In case the service or promotional offer provides free days, then the licensee shall abide by one of the two options:
    • First option: the service advertising message should state clearly the number of free days, and that in this case the service will be stopped automatically after the expiry of the free period.
    • The second option: the service advertising message should state clearly of the number of free days, the service price and the method of accounting after the expiry of the free days.
  • The name of the advertising agency should be displayed.
  • The licensee should ensure the clarity and transparency of the advertising message and should not include any misleading info to the user, in any way whatsoever.
  • The licensee shall inform the user of a specific toll-free number that he can refer to, to know details of the offers or service before subscribing to it.

Secondly: Subscription to the Service or Offer and its Renewal Controls:

  • The service provider may not enroll any user in any of the mobile value-added services (MVASs) or any relevant offers without his prior consent, even if the service is free.
  • In case the user consents to subscribe to one of the services that do not require the user’s prior subscription, the service provider shall ensure that the user’s consent includes only one specific type of services, products, information, data, programs, competitions or advertisements, or any other similar purpose that the user agrees to receive, and the operation charges or service tariff and collection methods.
  • In case the user requests the service provider to subscribe to one of the services that require periodic subscriptions (daily, monthly, ..), then the service provider shall send him an SMS to him every time at least twenty-four hours before the subscription renewal to remind him of the date of payment, the price of the service to be renewed. It includes as well the method of payment and how to terminate the service if he does not want to continue receiving the service.
  • In case the user requests the service provider to subscribe to a service that requires a daily subscription, the service provider shall clarify to him the rules and conditions related to the user’s notification.

Thirdly, Service Provision:

  • A free SMS will be sent to the user every time a deduction is made from his balance for any of the mobile value-added services (MVASs), with the service cancellation code in case of providing services or offers with periodic non-daily subscriptions. As for daily subscriptions, the licensee shall set the rules related to user’s notification of the deduction.
  • In the case of providing services and offers with periodic subscriptions, all relevant SMSs should be free of charge, except for the service subscription fee.
  • The licensee shall take all necessary organizational and technical measures and procedures to preserve and protect the confidentiality of information and data of users in general as per the laws applicable in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Fourthly: The Service Termination:

  • The service provider should clarify to the user how he could terminate a service or offer in case he intends to cancel his subscription at any time and the service provider should facilitate the procedures, provided that this cancellation is free of charge, and is made through USSD code or an SMS.
  • The service provider shall obtain the user’s prior consent for the period of time for which he will receive the service or the offer.
  • The service provider shall inform the user that if he subscribes to a specific offer, this may result in the cancellation of his subscription in any other offers he has previously subscribed.