500 fine for pesky SMSs?

New Delhi: There may be some relief from pesky text messages, with the telecom regulator on Friday proposing a penalty on unregistered telemarketers. Also, steps are under way to clamp down on unwanted calls. 

    In a consultation paper, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has suggested that unregistered telemarketers sending unsolicited commercial communication be charged Rs 500 per message. After 10 such instances are observed, the phone connection will be cut. 
    All that mobile users are required to do is forward the message from an unregistered telemarketer to a dedicated number—1909. Action will be initiated against the sender. Web and email-based complaint registration is also on the cards. The plan is to get access providers to put in place a system that blocks the delivery of unsolicited SMSs that carry similar signatures and come from a number that sends more than a specified number of SMSs every hour. Even banks or travel portals that send SMSs on transactions will have to hire registered telemarketers. 
    In recent months, mobile users have again been flooded with unsolicited messages, some of which are from unregistered telemarketers who use 10-digit numbers. Pesky SMSes: 'Can't encroach upon a person's privacy & time' 
New Delhi: The telecom regulator is drawing up plans to slam the brakes on unsolicited SMSs. A senior officer in Trai said a part of the reason for the sudden rise in the number of such messages was a high court order lifting the ceiling of 200 text messages a day, a decision which the regulator has decided to appeal against in the Supreme Court. 
    "While everyone has a right to free speech, no one has a right to encroach upon anyone's privacy and time," the official said. Although the regulator and the government had moved from the system of Do-Not Call register a few years ago, it was revamped last September with mobile users given the option to register to fully block or partially block pesky messages. 
    Besides, only registered telemarketers could call. While the messages did stop, they resumed within a few days as marketers discovered a loophole and started routing messages from other countries. 
    The Trai official, however, said the regulator had plugged the gap, referred to as modem farming, as it had asked service providers to scrub bulk messages from foreign shores.

There’s a Thriving Online Grey Mkt for US Brands

While India's politicians dither over rules allowing foreign retailers into the country, some online stores are already selling discounted clothing from companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co that have yet to officially enter the market.  Homegrown start-ups including fashionandyou.com,myntra.com snapdeal.com, dealsandyou.com, yebhi.com and HomeShop 18 - which is eyeing a US initial public offering - are introducing India's growing middle class to mid-market US brands, at discounts of more than 50%. Reuters interviewed nearly two dozen online retailers, distributors and officials from US and Indian firms to try to determine how some of the hottest Western clothing brands, including Abercrombie, American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Aeropostale Inc, ended up for sale on these websites.  None of these US chains have opened stores in India, and they have no official licensees. Abercrombie and American Eagle said Indian websites were not authorised to sell their products. "Our brands do not have any authorised third party websites anywhere in the world; all of our stores and official websites are owned and operated by A&F directly - we do not license or franchise our front-line sales," Abercrombie said. A unit of online daily deal company Groupon Inc in India stopped offering some Abercrombie and American Eagle clothing in July following questions by Reuters.  Some of the clothing available on Indian websites found its way through distributors in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US who buy off-season or overstocked merchandise and sell it in countries where they hope demand is higher. In other instances, online retailers bought from local manufacturers who supply the global brands. Those manufacturers are not supposed to sell apparel with namebrand labels, two Indian lawyers said.  "What will happen is when these (foreign) brands eventually decide to come to India they will blacklist these sites," said Darshan Mehta, chief executive of Reliance Brands, one of India's biggest retailers of foreign brands and controlled by its richest man, Mukesh Ambani.  For clothing companies waiting to get into India, where a complex set of rules limits foreign investment, the online retailers can provide a useful consumer testing ground. But once foreign companies launch their own business in India they become proactive in stopping unauthorized sales and are quick to take legal action to shut down those channels.  Reuters