Ofcom fines O2 £150,000 for providing inaccurate and incomplete information

Ofcom has today fined O2 £150,000 for failing to provide accurate and complete information to us when we were investigating whether it had overcharged its customers.

We regularly request information from companies that we regulate. This is an important part of our work to protect consumers, because the information is vital to help us make our decisions. So, it is essential that companies respond to our requests on time, and with accurate and complete information. If they fail to do this, we can take action against them.

Earlier this year, we fined O2 £10.5m for overcharging thousands of its customers. As part of this investigation, we requested information from O2, but it provided incorrect and incomplete responses. This contributed to our investigation taking longer to complete than necessary.

O2 has failed to provide accurate and complete information to us on previous occasions, and demonstrated a level of carelessness in responding to our information requests.

We take these failings seriously, so have decided to fine O2 £150,000. 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 in future.

The money raised from this fine will be paid to HM Treasury.