Investigation into giffgaff about its compliance with metering and billing requirements

Following consideration of information provided by giffgaff to Ofcom, Ofcom has decided to open an investigation into giffgaff’s compliance with GC 11. GC 11 places obligations upon all CPs to, amongst other things, ensure that every amount stated in a bill is accurate.

GC 11.1 states that:

“The Communications Provider shall not render any Bill to an End-User in respect of the provision of any Public Electronic Communications Services unless every amount stated in that Bill represents and does not exceed the true extent of any such service actually provided to the End-User in question.”

giffgaff has provided information indicating that it may have rendered bills that were inaccurate as a result of a billing error that arose from June 2016. Ofcom has therefore decided to open an investigation that will examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe giffgaff has failed to comply with its obligations under GC 11.

We are aiming to complete our evidence gathering phase in this investigation by the end of November. We will publish a further update on next steps once that phase is complete.