Telecoms firms accused of overcharging landline-only customers by £200m
A trio of telecoms firms have been accused of overcharging hundreds of thousands of landline-only customers by almost £200m, according toresearch.
Economists at Fideres argue that almost 600,000 UK landline-only customers have been charged “excessive” prices since 2009.
The economic consultancy’s analysis claims that TalkTalk, Virgin Media and SSE collectively overcharged consumers £199m when comparing their prices with rivals.
Fideres argues that there has been an abuse of pricing by landline providers that could breach competition rules and, indirectly, equality laws because two-thirds of customers with landline-only deals are 65 or older.
The consultancy, which has conducted investigations into issues including customer compensation for raw sewage spillage, Covid test kit pricing and cryptocurrency scams, has notified Ofcom about what it believes is a potential breach of competition law and has called on the regulator to take action.
In 2017, Ofcom published research showing that landline customers were getting “poor value for money”, with providers increasing line rental charges by 25% and 49% (adjusted for inflation) since 2009 – even though the underlying wholesale cost of providing a landline service had fallen by 26%.
The scathing research resulted in BT, which accounts for about 80% of the 2.9 million UK landline-only customers, voluntarily cutting prices by about 37%, effectively reversing the hikes by returning pricing to 2009 levels in real-terms.
In 2021, BT agreed a further five-year deal to protect pricing as consumer group Collective Action on Landlines (Call) launched a £600m class action suit seeking £500 compensation for each of the company’s 2.3 million landline-only customers.
Ofcom targeted BT because of
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