Australia’s largest telco, Telstra, has been ordered to pay a penalty of $18 million after switching almost 9,000 customers to a lower-speed internet plan without notifying them.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), between October and November 2020, Telstra, through its Belong NBN brand, migrated 8,897 customers from internet plans with a maximum upload speed of 40 megabits per second (Mbps) to plans offering a maximum upload speed of 20 Mbps. The affected customers were not informed about the reduction in upload speed. It is important to note that the download speeds for their 100 Mbps plans remained unchanged.
Telstra has committed to remediating all affected customers by providing a credit or payment of $15 for each month they were on the lower upload speed plan. The total remediation amount to be paid to customers exceeds $2.3 million.
ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey emphasized that Telstra’s failure to inform customers denied them the opportunity to decide if the change suited their needs. She stated, “The $18 million penalty sends a strong message to all businesses that they cannot mislead consumers by making changes to key aspects of a service without informing customers of those changes.”
In May 2020, NBN Co introduced a new series of consumer speed tiers, including a 100/20 Mbps tier, which offers a maximum download speed of 100 Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 20 Mbps. This tier costs retail service providers $7 less per month at the wholesale level compared to the 100/40 Mbps plan.
NewsWire has reached out to Telstra for comment.
https://thewest.com.au/business/accc-fines-telstra-18m-for-switching-9000-customers-to-slower-internet-c-20223860