Ofcom has fined Virgin Media £28 million for deliberately preventing customers from canceling their contracts.
It is the regulator's largest ever fine under its consumer protection rules, and the facts behind it make for uncomfortable reading.
Between January 2022 and September 2024, millions of customer calls were likely mishandled.
Virgin Media operated a two-tier retention system in which only second-tier agents could actually process cancellations, forcing over a million callers to repeat themselves before they could even get the conversation started.
When customers did get through, agents would keep them on hold without reason, transfer them unnecessarily, and, in some cases, deliberately drop the call. Others simply failed to log the cancellation request at all.
To add insult to injury, it has been revealed that agents were financially incentivized to do it, with a commission scheme effectively rewarding staff for stopping customers from leaving.
Natalie Black, Ofcom's Group Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity, did not mince her words:
“The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation. As a result, we are leveling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.”
This was not a gray area. It was a deliberate, institutionalized strategy to trap customers in contracts by weaponizing the cancellation process itself.
A Repeat Offender
What makes this particularly striking is that Virgin Media has been here before.
The company was fined under the same rule, Ofcom's General Condition C1.8, in 2018. Ofcom also attempted to resolve the issue informally in 2022, at the very start of the period under investigation.
Black was pointed about what happened next: “There wasn't the will to do that.”
So, for nearly three years, during the peak of the cost-of-living crisis, the company carried on.
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at consumer group Which?, was unsparing in her assessment:
“It's shocking that Virgin Media was deliberately making it harder for customers to leave for a better deal. This was a deeply cynical tactic at a time when so many households were struggling with cost-of-living pressures.”
Virgin Media, for its part, admitted its failings and settled, earning a 30% reduction on the fine.
A spokesperson pointed to Ofcom's own data showing the company is now the least-complained-about broadband provider, with complaints specifically relating to difficulties leaving reportedly 89% lower last year than in 2023.
