Kalastia Consulting Limited

The Phone-Paid Services Authority (‘PSA’) opened an investigation into Kalastia Consulting Limited (‘Kalastia’) on the 27 April 2021. Kalastia contracted with a number of merchant providers who provided subscription-based alerts service.

Between January 2018 and 14 November 2020, the PSA received a combined total of 3,047 complaints across the relevant merchant providers. A number of investigations were opened in respect of the merchant providers, some of which resulted in Tribunal adjudications which upheld breaches.

The PSA noted that while all of the merchant providers were separate legal entities who operated different premium rate services, the nature of the complaints being received as well as the nature of the potential non-compliance as evidenced within those complaints raised concerns regarding the level of due diligence, risk assessment and control that was being performed by Kalastia.

The parties agreed that the following sanctions should therefore be imposed:

• formal reprimand under paragraph 5.8.5(b) of Code 15
• a prohibition on Kalastia Consulting Limited from providing or having any involvement in PRS or promotion for five years and/or until all sanctions have been complied with, whichever is the later under paragraph 5.8.5(g) of Code 15
• a fine of £350,000 under paragraph 5.8.5(d) of the Code 15 comprised of the following amounts for each breach:
  - Breach 1 (failure to disclose information pursuant to paragraph 4.2.3 of the 14th Edition of the Code of Practice) - £150,000
  - Breach 2 (concealing and providing false and misleading information pursuant to 4.2.2. of the 14th Edition of the Code of Practice) - £200,000
• the parties also agree that Kalastia is to pay the PSA’s administrative costs in the sum of £8,225.

Kalastia Consulting Limited consent order signed