A hidden clause, a holiday, and a £42,000 roaming bill in Morocco: how “small print” turns into disaster

By Tahani Elghazaly
Published February 23, 2026

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A UK family’s Morocco trip spiraled into a financial nightmare after a £42,000 data roaming bill landed on the account, with an initial £22,000 charge while they were still abroad and a further bill after they returned. The case was ultimately resolved by waiving the charges, but it exposed how a single contract clause can remove the safety net most people assume exists.

What drove the bill?

Reports say video app usage, including TikTok, triggered extremely high out of bundle roaming charges, rising to more than £5,000 per hour.
The critical factor, however, was a contract term described as an opt out of a “rest of world” data cap, leaving charges outside Europe effectively uncapped.

The small print that causes “bill shock”

These are the clauses and settings that most often turn ordinary usage into catastrophic bills:

Cap opt outs or cap removals for destinations outside Europe.
Pricing in MB, not GB, in non included countries.
Roaming alerts help, but they do not guarantee you are protected if the contract allows caps to be removed. Ofcom says providers must send roaming notifications and point customers to spend cap tools.
Sales channel complexity: disputes may hinge on what was explained at point of sale, not only the network’s billing.