Vonage to Pay $100 Million in Refunds

Phone service provider illegally charged nearly 400,000 customers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced it is providing $100 million in refunds to customers of internet phone service provider Vonage.

The refunds will be paid to 389,106 consumers who were illegally charged by Vonage after attempting to cancel their service.

Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said, “This record-breaking settlement should remind companies that they must make cancellation easy or face serious legal consequences.”

The FTC notes that Vonage deliberately made canceling service difficult and in some cases, continued charging customers even after customers had explicitly asked to cancel the phone service.

Vonage often signed customers up by way of "free trials" and then charged the customers after the trial period ended unless the customer affirmatively canceled. Then, the company deliberately made it difficult to cancel the service by, for example, requiring that customers speak to a "retention agent" before service could be cancelled.

Vonage also imposed illegal junk fees, according to the FTC.

Impacted customers should expect a check in the mail, while those customers without a mailing address on file should expect a payment via PayPal.

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