The EU found that over half of these websites targeted children. In a release, EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said: “This EU wide investigation was a direct response to hundreds of complaints coming in from parents and consumers from many different EU countries. Young people should not have to fall victim to scams like misleading advertising that lure them into ringtone subscriptions they thought were free. And parents should not find nasty surprises in their phone bill, when their children by accident have signed up to more than they have bargained for.”

Of the offending web sites, there were three main problems:

—41 percent had incomplete information about price, and often times was not referred to at all - until the consumer received their phone bill. In addition, the word subscription was not clearly mentioned, even though users were signing up for a recurring payment.
—75 percent of the websites lacked contact information, which is against EU law.
—35 percent of websites were misleading, and often times advertised services for free even though consumers were charged.