Fines
Ofcom also announced that its investigation into TalkTalk and Tiscali UK has resulted in almost £2.5 million in refunds and good will payments after thousands of consumers were incorrectly billed for cancelled services.
The watchdog began its probe into the 2 companies in July last year following complaints from over 1,000 customers. Both were told to take steps to comply with telecoms rules that prohibit communications providers from billing customers for services that haven't been provided, by 2 December as well as refund the affected customers.
It said that TalkTalk and Tiscali have taken ‘significant steps' to remedy the situation including compensating 62,000 customers so they will not receive a fine from Ofcom.
However, if the law changes, Ofcom will be able to fine any firm found to be breaching regulations immediately regardless of whether it fixed the problem and Ofcom is unsurprisingly backing a proposed legal shake-up.
It also said that despite TalkTalk and Tiscali's actions, Ofcom is still receiving complaints from consumers and will consequently continue to investigate, which could result in a fine for the firms if they are found to be breaching regulations once more.
