Hey Cayne,
You touched on interesting points regarding the dialer.
Due to the combination of new laws and other variables with dialers, many webmasters report that their revenue has been decreasing rapidly. This is another reason to lean towards the Direct Debit solution.
Here are some interesting Facts to ponder:
Switzerland - Beginning April 1st, 2004 - all dialers will be prohibited in Switzerland. This new law will ban all dialers. Premium Rate Numbers (0900) are affected by the law as well. All numbers that cost at least SFR 2 per minute (approximately $1.56/minute USD), will have to announce the price first thing when the connection is established.
Premium numbers which charge more than SFR 5 per minute (approximately $3.90/minute USD) will require that the disclosure of the price/rate to be confirmed with a special confirmation by the caller. The caller will have to press a key to confirm that he knows he will be charged this high rate.
Germany: The New Dialer Law
The new German law - Gesetzes zur Bekämpfung des Missbrauchs von Mehrwertdiensterufnummern or "The Law to Combat Abuse of Premium Rate Numbers" - became effective at the end of 2003, requires the following rules:
Increase user rights
Every single dialer must be registered with the RegTP (German Telecommunication Commission)
User can easily obtain information about the dialer company (name, address, telephone contact)
A maximum charge of 30 EUR (approximately $37 USD) per call, maximum of EUR 2 per minute (approximately $2.40/minute USD)
0190 numbers are now forbidden for dialers - all dialers previously used this number. These old numbers are now considered illegal and all old customers must be cut off
The new acceptable dialer number is 0909
The connection to dialer calls will be cut off after 60 minutes (1 hour) of use
Companies that don't follow the new law can be fined up to 100.000 EUR (approximately $125,000 USD)
The new German dialer law will lead to a) a drastic fall of revenue and b) massive charge backs. As the former Government Telco (Deutsche Telekom) will no longer guarantee payouts for these transactions, there will be a massive problem receiving monies due.
Ruling from the German Supreme Court (Bundescgerichtshof BGH)
In a recent ruling, the German Supreme Court said, "If a user is not informed of the rate for the dialer, or if the dialer just established connections without the knowledge of the user, then there is no legal basis to get the money from the user. That means that users only have to pay if the knew exactly what the costs were and if they confirmed all connections." (File Number: BGH III ZR 96/03, March 4th, 2004)
This will lead to a drastic rise in charge backs.
Spain - There is a new law in Spain as well. "The Modem Law" which effectively makes Premium Data almost dead. Among other reasons, this new law will provide that the client will not be billed for the first 20 seconds of each connection.
Warm regards,
Chipmunk
