A small business owner from Manchester was hit with a £42,000 phone bill after his daughter used TikTok while on holiday in Morocco, nearly bankrupting him. Andrew Alty, who runs a curtains business, first received a £22,000 bill from O2 while in Marrakech, which he initially dismissed as a mistake.
After returning home, a second £20,000 bill arrived, revealing the full extent of the charges. Alty's contract, purchased through Currys and provided by O2, had no cap on data roaming outside Europe, allowing charges to accumulate at over £5,000 per hour due to his daughter's social media use.
Alty complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service, arguing that the opt-out of a rest-of-world data cap was not explained. However, the ombudsman ruled that Currys, not O2, was responsible for contract explanations and spend caps, leaving Alty without recourse.
After the Telegraph contacted both companies, Currys and O2 agreed to waive the charges. An O2 spokesperson stated the ombudsman ruled it a sales process dispute with Currys, which resolved the matter. Currys said the charges were removed given the scale and circumstances of the case.
