Ofcom hands EE £2.7m fine for overcharging customers

Operator failed to comply with a fundamental billing rule twice 

Ofcom has fine EE £2.7 million for over charging customers tens of thousands of customers.

The regulatory body said the penalty was a result of an investigation into the company, which found the company broke a fundamental billing rule on two separate occasions.

Ofcom stated EE customers who called the firm’s customer services number while roaming within the EU were incorrectly charged, as if they were calling the United States.

The mistake saw customers charged £1.20 per minute, instead of 19p per minute. At least 32,145 customers were overcharged, totalling around £245,700.

Ofcom said in a statement although EE: “did not set out to make money from its billing mistake, EE had decided not to reimburse the majority of affected customers until Ofcom intervened.”

The telecoms firm was intending to give the money to charity as it couldn’t identify those overcharged, which would have left customers out of pocket.

Ofcom said that in addition, even though EE made it free to call or text the customer services number from within the EU from 18 November 2015, the group continued to bill more than 7,000 customers until January 2016.

As a result, these customers were overcharged £2,203.33.

EE has 20 working days to pay the £2.7 million fine. Ofcom said that the size of the fine: “incorporates a 10 per cent reduction to reflect EE’s agreement to enter into a formal settlement, which will save public money and resources. As part of this agreement, EE admits and takes full responsibility for the breaches.”

The majority of affected customers have been refunded, however EE could not identify 6,905 customers who total £60,000 in charges. EE has made a payment of £62,000 to a charity in lieu of payments owed to customers. However Ofcom is requiring EE to make further attempts to trace and refund every customer who was overcharged.

Ofcom consumer group director Lindsey Fussell said: “EE didn’t take enough care to ensure that its customers were billed accurately. This ended up costing customers thousands of pounds, which is completely unacceptable.

“We monitor how phone companies bill their customers, and will not tolerate careless mistakes. Any company that breaks Ofcom’s rules should expect similar consequences.”

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