Ofcom has fined Virgin Media £28 million for systematically making it harder for people to cancel their broadband and switch elsewhere. The regulator found that millions of calls made between January 2022 and September 2024 were likely mishandled, either delaying cancellations or preventing them altogether.
Virgin Media divided its retention team into two tiers, but only agents in the second tier could actually process a cancellation. More than a million callers were therefore forced to repeat their request to another agent before they had any chance of leaving. Some made repeated calls or tried different contact methods, while others resorted to cancelling their Direct Debit and risked missed payments affecting their credit record.
Ofcom also uncovered widespread deliberate obstruction by call centre agents. Tactics included pressuring people to stay after they had clearly asked to leave, making unnecessary transfers, repeatedly placing callers on hold, dropping calls and simply failing to record cancellations. Virgin Media’s commission scheme financially rewarded agents for retaining people, while inadequate training, monitoring and oversight allowed the behaviour to continue.
Image credit: Virgin Media
Virgin Media O2’s headquarters in Reading – opened in 2019
Why Ofcom imposed its largest consumer protection fine
Ofcom received 1,881 complaints from people who had experienced difficulty cancelling Virgin Media, with at least 649 linked to the two-tier system or the call-handling tactics uncovered by the investigation. The regulator said Virgin Media’s procedures caused unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty across millions of calls, breaking rules designed to ensure cancellation processes don’t discourage switching.
The £28 million penalty is Ofcom’s largest fine under its consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers. In deciding the amount, it considered the scale of the harm, the financial benefit Virgin Media was likely to have received, its failure to identify and prevent the problem, and its repeated failure to cooperate fully with the investigation. Virgin Media had also been fined for breaching the same rule in 2018.
The final penalty was reduced by 30% after Virgin Media admitted its failings and agreed to settle the case. The company has since changed its commission scheme, training, quality assurance and monitoring. It must now check that everyone affected who complained received any compensation or other remedy they were entitled to, and complete that work within six months.
