Optus pressured customers to move early to NBN, ACCC alleges

Optus is being taken to court for allegedly trying to force 20,000 customers from pay TV cable to the NBN earlier than needed.

The ACCC accuses Optus of misrepresentation over when customers needed to switch to the NBN. Pic: AAP

The competition regulator is taking Optus to court for allegedly trying to forcing 20,000 customers to move from its pay TV cable to the National Broadband Network earlier than they needed to.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s action comes after reports in March this year that the telco was calling its customers in areas ready to receive a NBN service and threatening them with disconnection within 30 days.

The customers were told that they needed to switch from their existing service, delivered over Optus’s pay TV cable network, to the NBN within 30 days.

Under current migration rules customers generally have 18 months to move their service to the NBN.

However, some retail service providers have much shorter time frames and in this case some of the affected Optus customers had up to 90 days to make the switch.

The ACCC said today that the time frames stated to Optus customers to cancel their services were earlier than contractually allowed.

“We allege that Optus’ misrepresentations put pressure on customers to move to the NBN sooner than they were required to,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

“This is particularly concerning as Optus received a significant financial payment from NBN Co for each customer that moved from its cable network to the NBN.”

Optus receives a payment from NBN Co for every customer that moves from their existing service to the NBN.

The telco is also in hot water when it comes to how it was selling its NBN services to customers, with the regulator alleging that between October 2015 and September 2016, Optus misled some of its customers about their options for purchasing an NBN plan.

“Optus created the impression that its customers were required to obtain NBN services from Optus, when they could have chosen to switch to any internet service provider.”

“We are also concerned that Optus cut off some of its customers’ internet services when it had no contractual right to do so.”

The ACCC is seeking declarations, injunctions, pecuniary penalties, a publication order, compliance orders and costs.

The telco admitted that it tried to move customers off its network and on to the NBN as soon as an area was made ready, a process that led to disconnection of services for some customers before they had made the switch.

“We suspended all migration activations and reconnected affected customer as quickly as possible, we also compensated customers who had been disconnected without sufficient notice,” it said.

“The ACCC’s action today relates to past processes that we have successfully addressed,” Optus added.