Ofcom has collected two of 11 Online Safety Act fines, chief executive tells MPs

One of the nine outstanding fines was under appeal and one was not yet overdue, Dawes told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Two companies with unpaid fines had subsequently introduced effective age checks, while four others had blocked access to their services from the UK. That left three fined services still accessible without the identified risks having been adequately addressed.

Dawes set out the limits of recovery. The regulator acknowledged difficulties recovering penalties from businesses based in countries whose courts may refuse to enforce British regulatory decisions. "We will not be able to recover every single fine on online safety," she told MPs. She also made clear that Ofcom intended to pursue enforcement wherever possible.

Why recovery is hard

The issue surfaced in 4chan's challenge to Ofcom. 4chan and Lolcow LLC, the company operating Kiwi Farms, sued Ofcom in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. On 15 September 2026, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Ofcom was protected by foreign sovereign immunity and that the American court lacked jurisdiction.

The judge also noted that US courts are not necessarily required to enforce foreign financial penalties and may reject judgments that conflict with constitutional protections. Those observations did not amount to a ruling that Ofcom's fines were unenforceable. That question was not directly decided.

The 4chan penalties

Ofcom fined 4chan £20,000 in October 2025 for failing to comply with statutory information requests. On 19 March 2026 the regulator announced further fines totalling £520,000. The largest, £450,000, was for failing to introduce effective age assurance to stop children seeing pornography. It added £50,000 for an inadequate illegal-content risk assessment and £20,000 for how its terms of service explained protections.

Fixed penalties against 4chan come to £540,000, before any daily fines. Ofcom ordered corrective action by 2 April 2026 or further daily penalties would follow. The regulator has said services available to people in Britain must comply with British law regardless of where the companies are based.

Preston Byrne, the American lawyer representing 4chan, published an article the same day arguing that the regulator had conceded defeat. He argued that Ofcom had acknowledged the practical limits of its authority over American businesses operating entirely within the United States. Dawes's remarks were not a specific announcement about 4chan and cancelled no fines.

4chan disputed the regulator's approach, arguing that its American operations should not be subject to British enforcement demands.