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Telstra has been fined $3 million and paid out millions more in refunds after charging thousands of customers for internet connections that were no longer active.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which announced the fine overnight, said the behaviour stretched over 11 years and was "just not good enough".
The telco regulator said Telstra had refunded $17.7 million, with a further $3.4 million due by the end of the year.
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The company had wrongly billed more than 6500 customers $2600 each, on average, between April 2012 and August 2023, ACMA said, and chair Nerida O'Loughlin said the regulator had lost patience.
"Telstra has a history of incorrectly billing customers and it's just not good enough," O'Loughlin said.
"At a time when many small businesses are facing economic pressures, unaccounted costs can create very real stress and financial hardship."
"All telcos must have robust billing systems in place to ensure that consumers, including small businesses, are only paying for agreed and active services."
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It's the third time the authority has made a ruling against Telstra, after finding in 2020 that the telco had wrongly billed 10,000 customers almost $2.5 million and in 2022 that 11,000 had been stung $1.7 million.
The new fine follows a $300,000 penalty issued by ACMA last week for privacy failures stemming from "systemic issues" uncovered two years ago.
Telstra is yet to respond to the latest fine.
