Australia's competition regulator said on Friday that three Australian telecommunications companies have been ordered by the court to pay a total of 33.5 million Australian dollars for misleading claims about the speed of some of the NBN (National Broadband Network) Internet connections ($22.08 million).
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the Federal Court of Australia had ordered Telstra to pay A$15 million in fines, a subsidiary of TPG Telecom to pay A$5 million, and Optus to pay A$13.5 million. All three telecom operators have allegedly pleaded guilty in court to making false or misleading statements, saying nearly 120,000 customers were affected.
According to the ACCC, false claims emerged in 2019 and could continue into 2020, involving either 50Mbps or 100Mbps fiber-to-the-node plans.
Telstra said in a statement that between April 2019 and April 2020, the company failed to fully understand the maximum speed of the NBN service for its 48,000 subscribers within a reasonable time. It said it had initiated and implemented numerous remediation and refund procedures.
Optus and TPG Telecom spokesmen said separately that the companies had made changes to their systems and processes, and both re-issued refunds to eligible customers.
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