Mobile phone retailer EE has been handed a massive £2.7 million fine for overcharging thousands of customers.
Ofcom slapped the retailer with the fine following revelations it had charged 32,145 customers £1.20 per minute instead of the 19p per minute it should have cost.
This left customers with an unwarranted bill totalling £245,000.
The overcharges occurred during 2015 and early 2016, as EE customers called its customer service number when roaming in the EU, being charged as if they had called the US.
EE was also meant to repeal calling fees to its customer service number entirely inside the EU after November 18 2015, but it continued to charge until January 11 this month by charging 7600 customers.
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“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,” Ofcom’s consumer group director Lindsey Fussell said.
Most of the overcharged money has been paid back, and for the 6900 customers who couldn‘t be identified the repayable money was given to charity.
According to uSwitch.com’s Richard Neudegg, this landmark fine, which has been paid to the treasury, is a warning to “all providers that billing mistakes will not be tolerated”.
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