Virgin Media has been fined £28m for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling contracts, Ofcom said.

It said millions of calls from customers were “likely mishandled” over a three-year period which prevented or delayed them from switching to a better broadband, landline or pay-TV deal.

The communications regulator said it uncovered tactics including agents deliberately hanging up calls, and customers being put on hold “for no reason”.

The penalty was reduced by 30% as Virgin Media admitted its failing and agreed to settle, Ofcom added. Virgin Media apologised to “small proportion who experienced an issue when contacting us to agree a new deal or cancel their service in the past”.

Ofcom said the fine was the largest it had issued under its consumer protection rules, and its third largest ever in general.

Its largest ever fine of £50m was issued to Royal Mail in 2018 for breaking competition law, and its second biggest fine of £42m was for BT in 2017.

Ofcom said its Virgin Media investigation found millions of customer calls between 1 January 2022 and 11 September 2024 were likely to have been mishandled by call agents “in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor”.

It uncovered tactics including: excessive and unnecessary call transfers, deliberately hanging up calls, repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay, and unnecessarily and repeatedly keeping customers on hold.

Ofcom said Virgin’s commission scheme “effectively encouraged” and financially rewarded call centre agents for “behaving in this way”.

Ofcom said its rules “are clear that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract” – and that Virgin’s failings likely acted as a disincentive for customers in million of calls.

Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for infrastructure and connectivity, told the BBC’s Today programme that Virgin Media’s actions were “pretty shocking” and showed “poor behaviour”.

“Right at the beginning of this problem, a number of years ago in 2022, we tried to resolve this informally. There wasn’t the will to do that,” she said.

She added in a statement: “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 levelling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.”

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

Ofcom received complaints from 1,881 customers who reported difficulties cancelling.

It added that some customers resorted to having to cancel their direct debits, which led to further difficulties such as missed payments impacting their credit score.

Black said Ofcom had introduced “further safeguards to prevent this from happening again”, including its “One Touch Switch” process launched in 2024, intended to make changing broadband or landline providers hassle-free.

The regulator found that Virgin Media had two-tier system of retention agents, and only agents in the second tier were able to process cancellations.

This resulted in over a million callers being made to repeat their request to at least one further agent, it said.

It said Virgin Media has made some important changes, including to improve its commission scheme, training and quality assurance and monitoring.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said it had “completely redesigned” its customer service in recent years and addressed the “historic shortfalls” through a number of improvements.

“Our customer service turnaround strategy, underpinned by significant investment, has been transformational.

“Ofcom’s latest data shows that Virgin Media is now the least-complained-about broadband provider with complaints at record lows, and complaints specifically relating to ‘difficulties leaving’ were 89% lower last year than in 2023,” the spokesperson added.

Black told the BBC over the next six months it will be monitoring “really closely” to make sure Virgin Media was resolving issues with customers.

Virgin Media must pay the fine within two months and the money will be passed on to the Treasury.

Virgin Media was fined £23.8m by Ofcom in 2025 for leaving thousands of customers without access to lifesaving telecare alarms during the digital switchover.