VIRGIN MEDIA was slapped with a record £28 million fine for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling their contracts over a near three-year period by the telecoms watchdog today.

Ofcom found that the giant “likely mishandled” millions of phone calls between the start of 2022 and autumn 2024, with deliberate call-dropping tactics, unnecessary call transfers and putting customers on hold for “no reason.”

Its director, Natalie Black, said: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully co-operate with our investigation.

“Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price.”

The watchdog investigated the company after it received almost 2,000 complaints from Virgin Media broadband, landline and pay TV customers who struggled to cancel their contracts.

The Ofcom investigation found that millions of calls made by customers between January 2022 and September 2024 were probably mishandled by call agents “in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor.” 

It also uncovered evidence of “deliberate mishandling of calls by retention team agents” and said that Virgin Media had repeatedly failed to comply with Ofcom’s information-gathering process.

Consumer watchdog Which? called the company’s behaviour during the peak of the cost-of-living crisis “shocking.” 

Director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha said: “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.”

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said: “We’re committed to giving all our customers great service and apologise to the small proportion who experienced an issue when contacting us to agree a new deal or cancel their service in the past.

“We have completely redesigned our customer services in recent years, addressing the historic shortfalls identified by Ofcom through a number of improvements, and have resolved all formal customer complaints from this period providing redress where appropriate.”

The fine was reduced by 30 per cent as Virgin Media admitted to its failing and agreed to settle the case.

The company said Ofcom’s latest data showed Virgin Media now had the fewest complaints among broadband providers.