Virgin Media and BT Group PLC’s (LON:BT.A) EE have been fined a combined £13.3mln by the telecoms regulator for leaving customers “out of pocket” with early-exit fees on broadband and phone contracts.
Ofcom said the about 40,000 EE customers who wanted to leave their contracts early were overcharged up to £4.3mln while nearly 82,000 Virgin Media customers were overcharged by just under £2.8mln.
EE was fined £6.3mln for failing to lay out the charges its mobile customers would have to pay for leaving contracts early over a six-year period.
Virgin Media was fined £7mln after Ofcom found the company levied early-exit charges that were higher than customers had agreed to when signing their residential contracts.
The company was fined an additional £25,000 for providing incomplete information to the regulator.
"EE and Virgin Media broke our rules by overcharging people who ended their contracts early,” said Gaucho Rasmussen, director of investigations and enforcement at Ofcom.
“Those people were left out pocket and the charges amounted to millions of pounds.”
Ofcom said the two companies have agreed to change their terms and reduce exit charges.
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Virgin Media said it would appeal against Ofcom's decision.
"We profoundly disagree with Ofcom's ruling,” said Virgin Media chief executive Tom Mockridge.
“This decision and fine is not justified, proportionate or reasonable.
“A small percentage of customers were charged an incorrect amount when they ended one or more of their services early and for that, we are very sorry.
"As soon as we became aware of the mistake we apologised and took swift action to put it right by paying refunds, with interest, to everyone affected.”