Virgin Media uses 'legal and practical obstacles' to discourage switching, court told

In its proceedings, Comreg says there is only one way Virgin Media customers are told they could cancel — by ringing the internet and TV service provider's 1908 number

Opening Comreg's case, Paul Sreenan SC said if a Virgin customer contacts a competitor about possibly switching, they are forced to go through a process where most are persuaded to stay with Virgin through a deal. File picture

One of the biggest internet and TV service providers, Virgin Media, should not be allowed to disincentivize customers from switching to a competitor with legal, technical and practical obstacles, the High Court heard.

Telecoms regulator, Comreg, has brought proceedings against Virgin, which opened on Tuesday, alleging non-compliance with Universal Service Regulations because it says Virgin’s process for switching acts as a disincentive. Virgin is opposing the proceedings.

Opening Comreg's case, Paul Sreenan SC said if a Virgin customer contacts a competitor about possibly switching, they are forced to go through a process where most are persuaded to stay with Virgin through a deal. Comreg's objection is not to what is called this "save" activity but the way in which the activity operates to discourage switching, he said.

Comreg had concerns about this activity for some time and previously had a similar issue with Eir. That was resolved when Eir agreed to a two-stage process whereby a customer can go straight to cancellation "without hearing the sales pitch", counsel said.

"It is essential to ensure there is ease in switching and to do so without there being legal, technical or practical issues," counsel said.

These include the imposition of a 30-day termination notice period before they can switch, outside of the minimum contractual period, he said. This is a dissuasive factor in switching, he said.

In its proceedings, Comreg says there is only one way customers are told they could cancel — by ringing Virgin's 1908 number. 95% of customers cancel by phone but of the 5% who cancel by other means, Virgin still sought to call the customer.

Virgin has said there were a number of reasons for this including GDPR reasons. Comreg said Virgin did not cite any particular provision to justify this GDPR claim.

Comreg said Virgin appears to believe that "when some customers call to cancel, they (customers) are being tactical and seeking a better deal". Therefore, Virgin considers it part of "consumer welfare" to seek to dissuade such customers.

This approach is at odds with the the practice Comreg expects to be applied in such scenarios as required by the regulations, the regulator said.

Comreg says that figures provided by Virgin show some 155,000 of its customers out of some 194,000 did not proceed to cancel on the first call. A further 7,602 cancelled on a second call. In total, 76% were dissuaded from switching.

As a result of Virgin's failure to remedy the non-compliance, Comreg brought proceedings seeking orders that it do so. The hearing before Mr Justice Denis McDonald continues.