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Currys and O2 Wipe £42,000 Roaming Bill After TikTok Use Abroad

The case exposes how uncapped business roaming outside Europe can leave customers unprotected.

Overview

  • Manchester business owner Andrew Alty returned from Morocco to two O2 bills totaling £42,000, split into charges of £22,000 and £20,000.
  • The phone plan, purchased via Currys and run on O2’s network, included an opt-out that left rest-of-world data roaming uncapped.
  • Alty said his daughter scrolled TikTok for roughly eight hours during the trip, which worked out to more than £5,000 per hour in data charges.
  • After media inquiries and a retailer review, Currys and O2 agreed to waive the full amount.
  • The Financial Ombudsman Service categorized the dispute as a sales-process issue for Currys, highlighting limits on redress for network billing complaints.