O2 (Ireland) their bills on time in August 2008. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints concerning advertisements by O2. In August 2010, O2 was warned by the telecoms watchdog, ComReg, that it could not move customers to online billing without their explicit agreement. In March 2011, O2 pleaded guilty to a breach of the Data Protection Act at the Dublin District Court. In March 2011, it was revealed that Denis O'Brien made payments to the Minister for Communications, Michael Lowry, to aid Esat Digifone's licence bid. O2 (Ireland) Telefónica Ireland was a broadband and telecommunications provider in Ireland that traded under the
Legal monopoly Legal monopoly A legal monopoly, statutory monopoly, or "de jure" monopoly is a monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a government monopoly where the state owns the particular means of production or government-granted monopoly where a private interest is protected from competition such as being granted exclusive rights to offer a particular service in a specific region (e.g. patented inventions) while agreeing to have their policies and prices regulated. This type of monopoly is usually contrasted with ""de facto" monopoly" which is a broad category for monopolies that are not