Virgin Media fined £23.8m after putting vulnerable customers 'at risk'

Virgin Media has been slapped with a hefty fine by Ofcom for putting thousands of vulnerable customers at "direct risk of harm" during their transition to digital landlines. The media and communications watchdog highlighted several serious incidents that occurred when Virgin was upgrading its customers' phone services in November and December 2023.

The company failed to correctly identify and record the status of its "telecare" customers, who rely on emergency alarm systems that connect to a monitoring service – resulting in these affected customers not receiving the necessary support.

This oversight led to their devices being unable to connect to alarm monitoring centres while their networks were disconnected, as discovered by Ofcom.

The watchdog pointed out that this negligence put thousands of vulnerable customers, who were not involved in the process of having their phone lines upgraded, at direct risk of harm.

For breaching Ofcom's consumer protection rules, Virgin was hit with a £23.8m fine.

Ofcom's director of enforcement, Ian Strawhorne, said: "It's unacceptable that vulnerable customers were put at direct risk of harm and left without appropriate support by Virgin Media during what should have been a safe and straightforward upgrade to their landline services."

He further warned: "Today's fine makes clear to companies that if they fail to protect their vulnerable customers, they can expect to face similar enforcement action."

Virgin now has four weeks to pay the fine, which will subsequently be passed onto the Treasury.

The penalty was determined by the severity of the breach and the vulnerability of the customers affected, as well as Virgin's self-reporting of the incident and admission of its shortcomings.

A spokesperson for Virgin stated that since 2023, the company has updated its procedures and implemented additional safeguards to enhance its treatment of vulnerable customers.

The company said: "While historically the majority of migrations were completed without issue, we recognise that we didn't get everything right and have since addressed the migration issues identified by Ofcom."

This includes a package of support for vulnerable customers including improved communications, additional at- support and extensive checks following the switchover, as well as participating in a national awareness campaign.

The firm also emphasised that it was "essential we move our customers to digital services" from traditional analogue landlines which are "less reliable and difficult to maintain".

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