Key facts
- Virgin Media was fined £28 million by Ofcom for customer cancellation issues.
- The fine covers the period from January 2022 to September 2024.
- Ofcom found tactics such as deliberate call-dropping and excessive hold times.
- The penalty was reduced by 30% due to Virgin Media admitting fault.
- This is Ofcom's largest fine under its consumer protection rules.
Virgin Media has been fined £28 million by the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, for repeatedly making it difficult for customers to cancel their contracts. Ofcom stated that the company subjected customers seeking to switch providers to "unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty." An investigation covering January 1, 2022, to September 11, 2024, uncovered "systematic and repeated failings" in Virgin Media's contract termination procedures.
Ofcom found that Virgin Media employed a two-tier system for retention agents, with only those in the second tier able to process cancellations. This resulted in over a million callers reportedly being made to repeat their cancellation requests. The regulator also uncovered "widespread and, in many cases, deliberate mishandling of calls by retention team agents," who were found to be making "repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay" and engaging in "unnecessary or excessive call transfers." Additionally, Virgin Media was found to have "excessively, unnecessarily and repeatedly" kept customers on hold or deliberately dropped calls.
Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director of infrastructure and connectivity, emphasized that the fine sends a "clear message" to providers that they will "pay a heavy price" for acting against customer interests. The penalty was reduced by 30% because Virgin Media admitted to the failures and settled the case. The fine is Ofcom's largest ever for direct harm to consumers and will be passed on to the Treasury. Virgin Media had previously been fined for a breach of the same rule in 2018.