Regulator Hits Vodafone With Multibillion-Dollar Fine--Update
26 Ottobre 2016 - 11:34AM
Dow Jones News
(Rewrites, Updates with further detail.)
By Simon Zekaria and Rory Gallivan
LONDON--U.K. communications regulator Ofcom on Wednesday fined
Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) 4.6 million pounds ($5.6 million)--its
largest-ever fine of a telecom operator--for breaking consumer
protection rules after the British telecommunications giant erred
when transferring customer data to a new billing system.
In a statement, the regulator said its investigation of
Vodafone, the world's second-largest wireless carrier by
subscribers after China Mobile Ltd., uncovered mis-selling,
inaccurate billing and poor complaints handling procedures between
2013 and 2015. It called the behavior a "serious and sustained"
breach of current laws.
Failings included 10,452 pay-as-you-go customers losing out when
Vodafone failed to credit their accounts after they paid to top up
their mobile phone credit, Ofcom said. The affected customers
collectively lost GBP150,000 over a 17-month period, it said.
"Vodafone's failings were serious and unacceptable," said
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's consumer group director. The fine was
reduced by 7.5% after Vodafone agreed to a settlement, Ofcom
said.
Vodafone said the problems were due to a migration of its
information technology systems, which involved transferring over
more than 28 million customer accounts.
"We deeply regret these system and process failures," the
Newbury, U.K.-based group said.
Explaining that the errors were due to the data transfer, it
said: "Despite multiple controls in place to reduce the risk of
errors, at various points a small proportion of individual customer
accounts were incorrectly migrated, leading to mistakes in the
customer billing data and price plan records stored on the new
system."
"The IT project began at the end of 2013 and was the largest of
its kind ever undertaken by Vodafone anywhere in the world."
It also said it made errors in handling customers'
complaints.
Vodafone must pay the fine to Ofcom within 20 working days,
which will be passed on to the U.K. government's economic and
finance ministry.
At 0852 GMT, Vodafone shares were down 0.1% at 226 pence,
valuing the company at GBP60.1 billion.
Write to Simon Zekaria at simon.zekaria@wsj.com and Rory
Gallivan at rory.gallivan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 26, 2016 05:19 ET (09:19 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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