Ofcom has launched an industry-wide enforcement programme into whether in-contract price rises were set out clearly enough by phone and broadband companies before customers signed up.

Having analysed customer complaints and other preliminary evidence, Ofcom is concerned that consumers who took out contracts between 1 March 2021 and 16 June 2022 may not have been provided with sufficiently clear information about in-contract price rises, which are usually applied in March or April each year.

Under Ofcom rules over that period, if a provider included potential future price rises in the terms of a contract, they had to be set out prominently and transparently at the point of sale. If the customer had not agreed to those terms when signing up, because they had not been made sufficiently prominent and transparent, providers should have notified them of the price increase and offered them a right to exit penalty-free.

Ofcom says that if it identifies specific issues with providers complying with the rules, it may launch separate investigations into individual firms.

Ofcom has also published its annual pricing trends report, which cover prices for broadband, mobile, landline, and pay-TV. For further information on the enforcement programme, click here. To access the pricing trends report, click here.