Today, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) issued its largest ever fine under its consumer protection rules, ordering Virgin Media to pay £28 million for systematically preventing customers from cancelling their contracts.
The offence? A nearly three-year campaign of deliberate call-dropping, excessive transfers, and pressuring customers to stay, all financially incentivised through a commission scheme that rewarded agents for keeping potential leavers signed up.
This is not the first time Virgin Media has fallen foul of this rule — it was fined for a breach of the same provision in 2018. The relevant period under investigation is also important, It ran from January 2022 right up to 11 September 2024, one day before Ofcom’s new One Touch Switch process launched, removing the need for customers to contact their existing provider before switching.
The scale of the conduct uncovered, and the size of the penalty, send an unmistakable signal as the UK prepares for a new statutory regime governing subscription cancellations.
Continue reading “Don’t hang up on compliance: How Virgin Media’s cancellation tactics turned into a £28 million fine”