For giving consumers inaccurate or misleading information about NBN internet speeds, Telstra, Optus, and TPG Telecom have each been fined $33.5 million.
After the three telcos agreed to the charges in proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Federal Court of Australia fined them on Friday (ACCC).
For violating the Australian Consumer Law by making false claims about their 50Mbps or 100Mbps fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) plans, Telstra will pay $15 million, Optus $13.5 million, and TPG $5 million.
All three companies, according to the ACCC, made representations to customers promising to let them know if the speeds they were paying for on their NBN connections couldn’t be attained, with the possibility of refunds or more affordable options.
A total of 120,000 users are thought to have been affected over the course of a year in 2019 and 2020.
The three of them concurred that they should have told clients that their actual internet speeds would be slower than what their purchased plan said.
The telcos informed the ACCC that they had put remediation plans in place and contacted affected customers to offer refunds.
Even though they would have been better off paying for a lesser speed plan, some customers may have purchased a 50Mbps or 100Mbps package in the mistaken belief that their NBN connection could sustain the higher download speeds, ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said.
