Petition · past parliament

Ban broadband companies from charging existing customers more than new customers

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Make it illegal to charge different amounts for the same service. New customers and existing customers should pay the same for the same service. All new customer deals should be available to existing customers and switching to them should be easy.
Existing customers on broadband are frequently overcharged when their existing contract comes to an end. Often they will have to waste time phoning up sales people to try and negotiate a lower price. These companies are exploiting the fact that most people don't want to go through the hassle of phoning to overcharge them. All of the wasted time on these phone calls and switching providers is a drain on productivity that only benefits the broadband companies and exploits vulnerable people.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

We can only accept petitions about things the Government or Parliament are directly responsible for.

Decisions about whether to offer discounts to new customers are a matter for service providers. Ensuring that customers get fair treatment and fair prices for communications services is the responsibility of Ofcom, which is operationally independent of the UK Government and Parliament.

Timeline

3 Apr 2024 Petition opened for signatures
12 Apr 2024 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 12 Apr 2024

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.