Irish mobile network operator (MNO) Three Ireland has issued EUR334,970 (USD352,117) in refunds to customers, while paying a further EUR30,000 to Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) in lieu of prosecution related to overcharging customers when roaming.
In a press release regarding the development, ComReg noted that the payments had come on the back of an investigation in which it had determined that the MNO had overcharged 29,000 customers over the period of July 2019 until December 2021. According to the watchdog, the overcharging affected those subscribers that called a local number while roaming and did not use the international prefix ‘00’ when dialling the local number. In these cases, Three was reported to have incorrectly charged for calling a country with a code similar to the first three digits of the local number, rather than correctly charging the customer the cost of a local call. The operator has, meanwhile, reportedly confirmed that the billing issue has been fixed since January 2022.