Telstra, Optus, TPG fined for misleading consumers on NBN plans

The Federal Court of Australia handed down fines to Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom after each admitted to the accusations in proceedings from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Telstra will pay $15 million, Optus $13.5 million and TPG $5 million for breaching the Australian Consumer Law. They are guilty of making misleading statements related to their 50Mbps or 100Mbps fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) plans.

According to the ACCC, all three made statements to customers promising to inform them if the speeds they were paying for could not be reached on their NBN connections, with the chance of refunds or cheaper plans.

ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said: “Some customers may have paid for a 50Mbps or 100Mbps plan believing their NBN connection could support the higher download speeds, even though they would have been better off paying for a lower speed plan,” 

It's estimated around 120,000 consumers in total were impacted throughout a 12-month period across 2019 and 2020.

- CyberBeat