UK regulator fines EE 2.7 mln stg for overcharging customers

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Britain's telecoms regulator Ofcom slapped a 2.7 million pound ($3.3 million) fine on EE, the mobile operator owned by BT Group (Other OTC: BTGOF - news) , after an investigation found that it had overcharged nearly 40,000 customers.

The overcharging related to calls that British customers had made to the United States while in the EU and after the operator continued to bill customers for calling a number for some months after that number had been made free.

"EE didn't take enough care to ensure that its customers were billed accurately. This ended up costing customers thousands of pounds, which is completely unacceptable," Ofcom's consumer group director Lindsey Fussell said in a statement on Wednesday.

In October, Ofcom fined EE's rival Vodafone a record 4.6 million pounds for customer service failures, including not crediting accounts when mobile phone users topped up. ($1 = 0.8114 pounds) (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Susan Fenton)