Virgin Media Fined Record £28m for Blocking Cancellations
Ofcom fined Virgin Media £28m — its largest ever consumer-protection penalty — after finding millions of cancellation calls were likely mishandled between January 2022 and September 2024: calls deliberately dropped, customers left on pointless holds, transferred excessively, and more than a million made to repeat their cancellation request to a second agent, under a commission scheme that effectively encouraged obstruction. Virgin Media apologised, saying leaving-related complaints have since fallen 89%.
The finding describes obstruction as a system rather than a failure — incentives that paid agents to prevent departures, applied to a captive audience trying to exercise a basic contractual right — and the record fine (reduced 30% for settlement) is meant to reprice that behaviour across the whole sector, not just one company. It lands as switching rules tighten: the One Touch Switch process exists precisely so leaving no longer requires surviving a retention gauntlet. The 1,881 complaints that triggered the investigation represent a fraction of the million-plus affected. Watch whether compensation follows for blocked customers, and whether other providers’ retention practices draw the regulator’s eye next.