Australian regulator ACMA has issued Telstra a formal warning for inadvertently overcharging international data roaming customers to the tune of A$30 million ($27.9 million).
Telstra disclosed in late 2012 that due to errors in the information revealed by international operators and its contracted data clearing house, it had overbilled customers over a six-year period.
The operator started voluntarily arranging refunds for the roughly 260,000 affected customers once the inaccuracies came to light. Telstra also permanently ceased charging a flag fall fee for international data roaming.
But in an announcement, ACMA revealed it had decided to exercise its power to issue a formal warning because Telstra had received its first customer complaint over incorrect roaming charges in early 2009, and had failed to investigate and identify the problems at that time.
“Accurate billing is of the utmost importance,” ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said. ‘Our investigation makes it very clear that all telcos need to listen to their customers who report billing problems and be vigilant about any potential issues with the information provided to them by third parties.’
ACMA has the ability to act when it discovers a breach of the mandatory Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code. The regulator can either give formal warnings or a direction to comply with the code going forward, but cannot unilaterally impose any penalties or demand refunds.
The Australian telecom industry developed the code last year - with prompting from regulators due to concern over relatively high rates of customer complaints. New elements of the code took effect this month.