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		New Pay-As-You-Go Regulations Will Damage Consumers and Retailers Thursday, 5th February 2009 Syed Kamall, Member of the European Parliament for London, has warned that government plans to force retailers to see identification before selling pay as you go phones could add further woes to the mobile telecoms sector. The warning comes following an announcement by Vodafone that sales in handsets have dropped 18% compared with a similar period last year. Under government plans every mobile phone would have to be registered to someone who had shown identification when they bought the handset. This would make buying pay as you go phones far harder and raises the possibility of parents being unable to wrap the phones as presents because their children would need to be present when the item was bought: making them far less attractive to those choosing gifts. Vodafone have warned that customers are making handsets last longer and even trading down to cheap models when they need a new phone. Both of these moves are likely to hurt high street retailers across London and the rest of the UK. Syed Kamall said: "At this delicate time we cannot undermine fragile retail spending, but this ID requirement does just that. One of the main attractions of pay as you go phones is that they can be bought easily and cheaply and given as presents. If the new rules are enacted this will become much much harder. We have had a warning today that handset sales are declining, it's vital that we heed the warning and drop this unnecessary and damaging proposal."