Companies fined

ITV – £5.7million

ITV was fined in 2008 over a series of premium-rate phone-in scandals. Several shows were found to have duped the public by not selecting entrants for phone-in competitions at random, instead by factors such as proximity to studios.

Vodafone – £4.6million

Vodafone was punished by Ofcom for breaching consumer protection rules last year by mishandling customer complaints. It was found the provider had not credited the accounts of more than 10,000 payas-you-go customers after they topped up their balance.

TalkTalk and Tiscali – £3million TalkTalk billed customers for services they had not received

and was fined in 2011. The company’s wrongly issued bills had resulted in Ofcom receiving more than 1,000 complaints from disgruntled customers.

EE – £2.7million

EE was found to have overcharged tens of thousands of customers and was slapped with a penalty of more than £2million in January. Nearly 40,000 customers were overcharged a total of around £250,000.

GMTV – £2million

GMTV was given what was the largest financial penalty dealt by Ofcom in 2007 over a TV competitions scandal. The breakfast broadcaster was found to have been charging viewers to enter competitions even though they had no chance of winning.