Mobile phone company Three Ireland has refunded €26,000 to 7,000 customers who were overcharged for premium-rate text messages.

The refund was reported by the telecoms watchdog ComReg, which revealed yesterday that on October 27 it had notified Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited of a finding of non-compliance.

The finding related to Three's obligations under the Code of Practice for premium-rate services.

"Three has refunded €26,000 to 7,000 customers who were charged in excess of the actual cost of [the premium-rate] SMS," Comreg said.

It said Three had been given until November 28 to remedy the noncompliance fully.

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It is not the first time Three has had to refund customers after a ComReg investigation.

In March, the company paid back €2.6m taken for services after the cancellation of its customers' contracts, and other retained credits, after a review of its billing system.

ComReg said that instead of proactively refunding customers such charges, Three had kept them as credits on inactive accounts and issued a refund only if a customer requested one.

In April, Three issued €334,970 in refunds to customers and paid ComReg €30,000 in lieu of prosecution. That came on foot of a ComReg investigation that found Three had overcharged customers when they were roaming.

A representative from Three Ireland said, in a statement to BusinessPlus.ie: "Three Ireland identified that a number of customers were charged in excess of what they should have been for Premium Rate Services.

"All affected customers were contacted and refunded, and this process has now been completed. Three Ireland has since implemented checks to ensure that this does not occur again."