Mobile company Three refunds €825,000 to premium-rate service users

Mobile phone company Three has refunded €824,765 to 26,000 customers who were charged for a premium-rate service that was in effect not supplied to them. The refunds come after telecommunications watchdog ComReg made a finding of non-compliance against Three.

ComReg said it had notified the company on March 15th of non-compliance with its obligations under the regulator’s premium-rate services code of practice, meaning it was found to have overcharged for premium-rate services.

The code of practice states that where customers receive a “busy tone” or there is a period of silence prior to the connection of the requested service, they should not be charged for this time. Premium-rate services should also be of “sufficient technical quality so as not to cause the end user harm”.

Three has until April 16th to “remedy the non-compliance”, ComReg said in an information notice published on Monday.