Ombudsman probes O2 complaint on roaming charges

The European Union’s Ombudsman in Brussels has opened an inquiry into a complaint by O2 over an investigation by the EU regulators that found the British mobile phone operator charged excessive roaming fees.

The European Union’s Ombudsman in Brussels has opened an inquiry into a complaint by O2 over an investigation by the EU regulators that found the mobile phone operator charged excessive roaming fees.

O2 complained that the European Commission failed to grant proper defence rights or access to documents during a four-year investigation into its roaming charges.

The Commission in July 2004 concluded that O2 had abused a dominant market position in the UK by charging excessive roaming fees for customers using mobile phones outside their home country.

Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros said he’d asked the EU’s executive body to reply by the end of the year to the issues raised by O2.