Virgin Media fined £28m for preventing customers from cancelling contracts
Virgin Media has been fined £28 million for repeatedly preventing customers from canceling contracts, Ofcom said.
He said millions of phone calls from customers over a nearly three-year period were “probably mishandled”, preventing or delaying the customer from switching to a better deal.
The communications regulator said it had identified “deliberate call drop” tactics as well as customers being put on hold “for no reason”.
Ofcom said the penalty was reduced by 30% as Virgin Media admitted its failure and agreed to settle the case, but the penalty was still the largest ever under consumer protection rules and the third-largest ever overall.
Ofcom said its investigation found that millions of customer calls between 1 January 2022 and 11 September 2024 were likely mishandled by call agents. “in order to delay or prevent customers from canceling and switching to competitors”.
It revealed tactics such as excessive and unnecessary call transfer, repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay, and putting customers on hold unnecessarily and repeatedly.
Ofcom said Virgin’s commission scheme “effectively incentivizes” and financially rewards call center agents who “behave in this way”.
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for infrastructure and connectivity, said: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it difficult for customers to cancel their contracts and then failed to fully co-operate with our investigation.
“As a result, we are leveling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.”
He added: “Today we are sending a clear message that any provider who deliberately acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price.”
Ofcom received complaints from 1,881 customers who reported difficulty canceling.
Black said Ofcom was introducing “further safeguards to prevent this from happening again”, including a “One Touch Switch” process launched in 2024 that aims to make switching broadband or landline providers seamless.
The regulator found that Virgin Media had a two-tier system of retention agencies and that only agencies in the second tier were able to carry out cancellations.
This resulted in more than a million callers having to repeat their requests to at least one agent.
