MOBILE network O2 has been fined £150,000 by telecoms regulator Ofcom for failing to provide complete and accurate information during its investigation into the overcharging of its customers.
The probe found that for eight years, some customers who were leaving the network were double-charged some fees on their final bills.
The error affected more than 140,000 pay-monthly subscribers between 2011 and 2019, totalling £2.4m.
O2 was consequently fined £10.5m for overcharging thousands of customers.
Now Ofcom has fined O2 a further £150,000 saying that as part of the investigation, they requested information but what was provided was "incorrect and incomplete responses".
The regulator said that this contributed to the investigation taking longer to complete than necessary.
"We regularly make statutory requests for information from companies as part of our work to protect consumers," said Ofcom.
"This evidence is vital to our decision-making, and so it is essential that companies respond by the deadline, with accurate and complete information. If companies fail to do this, they face action from Ofcom.
It added: "O2 has a history of contraventions in this area, and demonstrated a level of carelessness in responding to our information requests.
"We take such failings seriously and have decided to fine O2 £150,000 for this breach of its regulatory obligations. The penalty includes a 25% reduction from the penalty we would otherwise have imposed, as a result of O2 accepting liability and entering into a settlement.
"We have also told O2 to review its processes and systems for responding to our information requests."
Ofcom said the original £10.5m fine, was reduced from £15m because of O2’s cooperation with its investigation.
The investigation found that between 2011 and 2019 an error in the way O2’s systems calculated final bills meant that many customers were billed for some fees and charges twice. More than 250,000 customers were billed a total of £40.7m in incorrect charges.
The bills of many of the customers being disconnected were already in arrears, meaning they did not actually pay the incorrect extra charges, but 140,000 departing customers did pay £2.4m in fees they should not have.
On top of the 140,000 who paid the extra amount, a further 110,000 people were overcharged a total of £38m - but did not end up paying the bill, and were not due a refund.
Ofcom said the UK’s biggest mobile operator knew about the issues with its billing processes as far back as 2011 but “efforts to address these problems were not successful and customers continued to be overcharged”.
O2 said in February that it had refunded many of the customers, adding an extra 4% to the sum involved.
But it had been unable to contact some of its former subscribers. It was said that those refunds will be donated to charity.
Despite the refunds, Ofcom decided that O2 had broken important rules around providing customers with accurate bills and that it deserved a fine.
After the initial fine O2 said: "We are disappointed by this technical error and sincerely apologise to customers impacted.
"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."
Ofcom said O2 had changed its billing process so the problem would not happen again.
O2 said that there had been no indication that contraventions occurred deliberately,
An O2 spokesman said: “We responded in good faith to Ofcom’s information requests on this complex matter, which they have accepted. We will undertake a review of our internal governance to ensure we have suitable processes and systems in place to respond to any future information requests.”
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