Virgin Media fined record £28m for blocking contract cancellations

(Sharecast News) - Virgin Media has been hammered with a record £28m fine after an investigation found it had actively blocked customers from trying to cancel their contracts. Industry regulator Ofcom said that between January 2022 and September 2024, millions of calls were subjected to tactics that made leaving the service unnecessarily difficult, including dropped calls, repeated transfers and long periods placed on hold "in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor".

Ofcom said the behaviour breached consumer protection rules and created "undue hassle" for customers trying to switch providers. The watchdog also criticised Virgin Media's internal processes, which often forced people to repeat cancellation requests to multiple teams, and highlighted a commission structure that encouraged obstructive practices.

The fine - which includes a 30% discount as Virgin confessed to the wrongdoing - is Ofcom's largest ever for a consumer protection breach and follows a separate £23.8m penalty issued in late 2025 for failures linked to the company's digital landline migration.

Virgin Media had two-tier system of retention agents, and only agents in the second tier were able to process cancellations resulting in more than one million callers being made to repeat their request to at least one further agent.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com