By Jennifer Hill Reuters - 2 hours 58 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - The communications industry regulator said on Monday it would crack down on misleading sales practices in the mobile phone market, after a voluntary code failed to bring operators to heel.

Ofcom said it would introduce mandatory rules after the code introduced last summer failed to stop the growing problem of "slamming" -- where rogue salesmen switch people to expensive long-term contracts -- and "cashback" promotions that do not deliver.

"Slamming" involves salesmen cold-calling with the promise of a free phone upgrade or discounts. Customers think this comes with no strings attached, but then find they have been locked into an expensive new deal.

The five main mobile phone networks -- O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and 3 -- signed up to the guidelines on how they vet the resellers they do business with in July last year.

The code set out prohibited sales and marketing practices, how retailers must comply and complaints processes.

But Ofcom said it had since continued to receive a large number of consumer complaints about mobile mis-selling and cashback deals -- an average of around 700 per month in January, compared with 460 six months earlier.

Mandatory rules will introduce penalties of up to 10 percent of turnover for those who fail to comply.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: "The UK has one of the more competitive mobile phone sectors in the world, but strong competition is no excuse for marketing malpractice.

"We warned the industry last year that unless it cleaned up its act we would consider introducing new rules.

"The facts show that this hasn't happened, so we are now proposing tougher measures to protect consumers from unacceptable sales and marketing practices."

A consultation will run until April 29 and Ofcom hopes to have the new rules in place by the summer.

But Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at price comparison Web site Moneysupermarket.com, said it was a case of "too little too late".

"Consumers are still being ripped off, particularly on cashback deals," he said.

"If these steps had been taken earlier, thousands of people may not have suffered at the hands of the providers."

Almost a third of people have not been successful in claiming all of promised cashback and a tenth have not received any money, a YouGov poll of 2,500 adults for Moneysupermarket found.

People who have received a slamming call can contact the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) if they want to register a complaint, and have seven days to terminate any unwanted contract, according to OFT rules.

Consumers can also register their mobile number at a Web site run by the Telephone Preference Service (www.tpsonline.org.uk). In theory, after 28 days this should stop all UK-based telemarketing calls, but it will not prevent unsolicited text messages.

(Editing by Stephen Addison)

Barack Obama speaks about race during an address in Philadelphia. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Barack Obama took the biggest risk of his presidential campaign so far when he today refused to disown his controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in a potentially make-or-break speech on race.

Obama condemned what he called controversial remarks by Wright about patriotism and race, but, tellingly, he tried to put the pastor's comments into a wider context of race relations in the US.

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said in his speech in Philadelphia. He portrayed Wright, 66,as a product of his time, brought up under discriminatory race laws and a fighter in the civil rights movement.

But in an extremely personal speech, Obama said that it was time for the US to move on towards a genuinely multi-racial society.

Obama has been on the defensive over the last week as television footage showed Wright, pastor of Obama's church in Chicago until last month, saying 'God damn America' and talking in incendiary terms about how the black community is discriminated against.

Obama is behind in the polls ahead of the primary in Pennsylvania next month. Clinton's team has been battering him over his relationship with Wright.

Obama confronted head-on the questions that have been raised. He said he had condemned, in unequivocal terms, Wright's statements. "For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

He continued: "But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic."

In spite of that, he would not turn his back on the pastor. "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me." He added: "Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not."

The crux of the matter, he said, is that "race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American."

The speech was a test of whether Obama, as the Hillary Clinton team, repeatedly alleges, is capable of withstanding pressure when faced with a crisis.

Before the speech, Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to John Edwards, who pulled out of the race earlier this year, told CBS's Early Show: "It's either going to be the crisis of his candidacy, or a shining moment for him."

Obama's advisers are concerned about the impact on white voters in the Pennsylvania primary, which is to be held next month, and the potential damage that the race issue could inflict in November's general election if he was the Democratic candidate.
America's claims to be a post-racial society have been undermined by the introduction of race into the Democratic campaign and the fracturing of the party vote in primaries in some states, where an overwhelming majority of African-Americans have voted for Obama and a majority of whites for Clinton.

Wright retired last month as pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He helped bring Obama into the church, presided over his marriage to Michelle and acted as his spiritual adviser.

Constant replays on US television of Wright shouting "God damn America" and railing about discrimination against blacks risk alienating some white voters.

A Rasmussen poll published yesterday said Wright's comments made 56% of the electorate less likely to vote for Obama. The focus on Wright came days after Clinton broke ties with a long-time supporter, Geraldine Ferraro, over her claim that Obama would not have done as well as he has if he had been white.

Obama rarely spoke about race last year as his campaign team tried to present him as a candidate that transcends race. But he has positioned himself as a champion of black rights, an heir to the mantle of the Reverend Martin Luther King, in a speech last year and again in Atlanta in January on Martin Luther King day. He has also criticised those sections of the black community where anti-semitism and anti-homosexuality were rife.

The California Assembly, apparently facing an $8 billion deficit, has introduced a bill that would apply sales taxes to "media downloads," namely the music sales going through iTunes (which, as we've reported, is challenging even retailer giant Walmart for music sales numbers). But it seems as though (since new taxes require a 2/3 majority in California) they're going about it in a pretty weird way.
Basically, to duck the majority rule, they're instead trying to have "digital property" count like normal, taxable property. That way, all they're doing is changing a definition, not actually adding a new tax. Even then, they've got another hurdle to jump -- the California Assembly, of course, can only tax things bought in California, unless they charge a "use" tax, which is for people things buy elsewhere but only use in California. Which no one ever pays anyway. Yeah, it's weird.
Eventually, they'll probably pull something off -- Apple already charges sales tax in quite a few states, so it's not surprising that California, Apple's home base, would try as well. It seems like politics is making the process a little bumpier than elsewhere, though.
[Via Macdailynews]