Zed CEO Javier Perez Dolset has lashed out at the UK’s premium rate phone regulator PhonepayPlus, blaming the watchdog for “destroying” the UK D2C content market. Dolset told Mobile Entertainment that the regulator’s refusal to step in and deal with the subscription abuses taking place three years ago has killed off the UK business. Apparently, its Monstermob unit used to rake in £30 million, but now manages to squeeze out only £1 million a year. Perez Dolset also railed against the new rules PhonepayPlus put into place this summer to help stem the jump in customer complaints against mobile content sellers in the last year: “It makes me angry to see PhonepayPlus coming out with all this regulation now. Where were they three years ago? They did nothing, and now they’re trying to make everyone else pay for what happened.”

Just for the record, the new rules that PhonepayPlus put in place says that any subscription service that doesn’t allow a consumer to stop easily and quickly will be shut down and not allowed to operate. There are also proposals to try to cut down on unwanted mobile spam. It’s a little unclear how this could be construed as “making everyone else pay for what happened”—surely, this is a rule that any game company operating on the up and up would be happy to abide by? Meanwhile, ZED’s Finnish arm is on the EU’s list of companies that need further investigating over ringtone scams.

• Updated: EU, UK Clamping Down On Mobile Content Scams