LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 06: The company logo is reflected in a mobile phone screen as shoppers ... [+]
U.K. mobile operator O2 has been hit with a £10.5 million ($13.7 million) fine after a billing error meant it overcharged thousands of customers.
According to Ofcom, the U.K's communications regulator, an error in the way O2’s systems calculated the final bills for pay monthly mobile customers between 2011 and 2019 meant a number were billed for some charges twice.
“O2 had initially identified issues with its billing processes in 2011, but efforts to address these problems were not successful and customers continued to be overcharged,” Ofcom notes.
In total, more than 250,000 customers were billed for these incorrect charges, amounting to a total of £40.7 million in overcharging. Around 140,000 customers actually paid the extra charges, paying a total of £2.4 million.
The regulator concluded that O2 breached its rules, and issued a fine of £10.5 million.
“Mobile customers trust their provider to bill them correctly and fix any errors as quickly as possible, but these billing issues continued for a number of years without sufficient action from O2, and thousands of customers were overcharged as a result,” said Gaucho Rasmussen, Ofcom’s enforcement director.
“This is a serious breach of our rules and this fine is a reminder that we will step in if we see companies failing to protect their customers.”
O2 has refunded the affected customers in full, plus an additional 4% in compensation. It has also changed its billing process to ensure the error does not happen again.
“As the operator proactively driving over £168 million value back to our customers in the last year alone, we are disappointed by this technical error and sincerely apologise to customers impacted,” an O2 spokesperson said.
“We identified the issue ourselves and notified our industry billing auditor. We have also taken proactive steps to refund all impacted customers for the extra charges they paid, plus an additional four per cent.”
