The runaround is now the offence

On 8th July, Ofcom fined Virgin Media £28 million. The fine was for hold music, deliberate call-dropping, unnecessary transfers, and putting customers repeatedly on hold for no reason, all operating to delay or prevent people from cancelling.

More precisely, for what Ofcom found across millions of calls between 1st January 2022 and 11th September 2024. The rules breached were General Conditions C1.8 and C4, which require that a provider's cancellation procedures do not act as a disincentive to leaving. It is the largest fine Ofcom has ever issued under its consumer protection rules, and that is after a 30 per cent discount for admitting the failing and settling.

Sit with what that means. The obstruction was the complaint. Ofcom did not need Virgin Media to have got anything else wrong.

Three regulators arrived at the same place

This is where it stops being one telecoms story.

The FCA's Consumer Duty contains a rule that reads like it was drafted after listening to the same call recordings. PRIN 2A.6.2R(4) requires firms to ensure retail customers "do not face unreasonable barriers (including unreasonable additional costs) during the lifecycle of a product", and names cancelling a contract or otherwise terminating the relationship as exactly the moment it has in mind. The guidance at PRIN 2A.6.4G is blunter still: a firm is unlikely to be meeting its obligations if it causes "disproportionately longer call waiting times to cancel or make changes to an existing product than to purchase a new product".

That is a testable claim about a firm's phone system, and any consumer can generate the test in an afternoon.

The FCA has also stopped being patient about it. Enforcement Watch 2, published on 7th July, confirms eleven open investigations into potential Consumer Duty breaches, up from six in January, and states that the initial forbearance period has ended. There were 382 supervisory interventions in the last financial year.

Meanwhile the CMA's drip pricing rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act are live and enforceable now, with penalties reaching the higher of £300,000 or 10 per cent of worldwide turnover. The subscription contracts regime, which mandates straightforward exit routes, has slipped to Spring 2027, so do not rely on it yet. And Ofgem has been handed direct consumer law enforcement powers that remove the need to go through the courts at all.

Four regulators, one target: the friction itself.

What this changes about how you complain

Most people, including most people who are good at complaining, treat the runaround as overhead. You spent forty minutes on hold, got transferred three times, were cut off twice, and had to call back on Monday. You mention it in your complaint letter as colour, usually in a sentence beginning "I have been passed from pillar to post". Then you get on with the real argument about the money.

That is now a wasted asset.

The runaround is a separate breach, with its own rule reference, its own evidential requirements, and in Virgin Media's case its own compensation. It should be pleaded as its own numbered paragraph, not used as atmosphere.

Practically, that means two things.

Log the friction as it happens, with the same discipline you would apply to the substantive claim. Date, time you called, time you got through, number of transfers, name of each person, whether the call dropped, and whether you had to start the explanation again. If you can, run the comparison the FCA guidance invites: call the cancellations line and time it, then call the new sales line and time that. A screenshot of two hold times is a better exhibit than three paragraphs of adjectives.

Cite the rule that governs your sector, not a general complaint about service. Telecoms, that is Ofcom General Conditions C1.8 and C4. Financial services, PRIN 2A.6.2R(4) and the guidance at PRIN 2A.6.4G. Energy, Ofgem's direct enforcement powers now sit behind the standards of conduct. Retail and subscriptions, the CMA drip pricing rules today and the subscription regime from Spring 2027. Everywhere, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 section 49 requires a service to be performed with reasonable care and skill, and a cancellation process engineered to fail is not that.

The part most people will miss

Ofcom did not stop at the fine. It directed Virgin Media to identify affected customers and provide compensation or other remedies within six months, which puts the deadline at around the start of January 2027.

Read that carefully, because it is the same structure appearing everywhere now. The firm identifies. The firm calculates. The firm contacts you. The motor finance redress scheme works the same way, and so will most of what follows.

Firm-led identification is better than nothing. It is also a process with an error rate, run by the organisation that has the least interest in finding you. If you called Virgin Media to cancel between January 2022 and September 2024 and got the treatment described above, the sensible assumption is that you should write first, reference the fine, state your dates, and ask which category their remediation exercise has put you in.

A fine is a fact about the company. Redress reaches you only if someone connects the two.

The hold music was never neutral. It was a business decision, taken deliberately, priced against the likelihood that you would give up. Four regulators have now put a number on it. Put yours on it too.

Also worth your time this week

A short read on what moved, and what it means if you are mid-dispute.

• Ofcom fined Virgin Media £28 million for blocking cancellations on 8th July, its largest ever consumer protection penalty. Millions of calls between January 2022 and September 2024 were mishandled through dropped calls, needless transfers and repeated holds. Virgin Media has six months to identify affected customers and pay redress, which lands around the start of January 2027.
• The FCA published Enforcement Watch 2 on 7th July. Open Consumer Duty investigations have gone from six in January to eleven, across insurance, pensions, wealth management, consumer investments, peer-to-peer lending and claims management. The FCA says its forbearance period has ended.
• Buy Now Pay Later complaints can now go to the Financial Ombudsman, effective 15th July. If you cannot resolve a BNPL dispute with the provider, there is finally an ombudsman backstop for a product that had none.
• The motor finance redress scheme is still partially suspended. Firms need not calculate or pay yet, but they must still identify affected agreements and gather commission data. The Upper Tribunal will hear the challenges either 14th to 18th December 2026 or 16th to 26th February 2027.
• The DMCCA subscription rules have slipped to Spring 2027, a second delay. The drip pricing rules, though, are live and enforceable today, covering late-added booking, service and handling fees. CMA penalties run to the higher of £300,000 or 10 per cent of worldwide turnover.
• Ofgem has been given direct consumer law enforcement powers following the Ofgem Review, so it no longer has to go through the courts to make suppliers put things right.
• Ombudsman case volumes keep falling. The Financial Ombudsman Service expects 199,000 new complaints in 2026/27, down from nearly 306,000 in 2024/25. It has also opened a consultation on its future funding model, and confirmed Jenny Simmonds as permanent Chief Executive and James Dipple-Johnstone as permanent Chief Ombudsman.
• The FOS decisions database caught up to 29th June. Of the ten most recent published decisions, nine were not upheld. Revolut accounts for four of them.
• A consultation worth a diary note: the Department for Business and Trade wants to move regulatory appeals from the CMA to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, covering Ofwat, Ofgem and Ofcom price controls. Responses close 25th September 2026.

The through-line this week is friction. Four regulators are now treating a difficult cancellation process as a breach in its own right, not a customer service failing. That is worth knowing before your next phone call.

Stand stronger. Start a free case.