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EE fined £1 million for failing to deal with complaints correctly
July 28, 2025
EEmay have the UKcovered for 4G data, but the company hasn’t been doing the best job listening to its customers in the past, according to industry regulator Ofcom. As a result, EE has been fined £1 million.
Ofcom had been running a routine investigation into EE for the past three years, to find out how the company logs and deals with customer complaints. The regulator found that between July 22nd2011 and April 8th2014, EE did not provide adequate information to consumers about their right to take a complaint to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. A third party can be used to reach an impartial decision if no resolution is found after eight weeks.
Furthermore, EE did not send letters out to customers who had requested access to its ADR scheme, also known as “deadlock letters”, within the necessary time limit and often failed to send out any at all. Customers were also incorrectly told that letters of this type were not issued and the company failed to send paper bills to customers that referenced the fact that they could use its ADR scheme for free.
As a result of the investigation, EE has now amended its Customer Complains Code to include information about its obligation to issue a deadlock letter. The company will also inform customers of the fact on their paper bills and will send written notifications to complainants about free access to the ADR.
EE is not the only UK carrier to have been fined Ofcom. Last year, Three was found to have closed customer complaints earlier than it should have and was fined £250,000.
The UK carrier has 20 days to pay its fine. £1 million may only be a slap on the wrist in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully it will encourage EE to keep on top of its customer complaints.
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