Onestream Limited – which supplies its service to around 100,000 households – sent an email out to customers to inform them they had been automatically opted-in to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service
A broadband firm is being investigated by Ofcom after signing customers up for a paid service without their consent.
First revealed by the tech news website ISPreview, broadband provider Onestream Limited – which supplies its service to around 100,000 households – sent an email out to customers to inform them they had been automatically opted-in to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service from online security firm NordVPN.
In the email, customers were told they would be enrolled for a “free trial” for 30 days, and the wording of the email indicated that if they did not actively cancel they would face a £4.95 charge after the trial ended. The email read: “As a valued Onestream customer, we are excited to let you know we have partnered with NordVPN. To celebrate this great news, we are pleased to announce that we are giving you a 30-day free trial of NordVPN. If you wish to cancel your free trial, there are instructions at the bottom of this email.”
In addition, the bottom of the original email said: “NordVPN is not tied to your broadband services with Onestream, should you ever leave Onestream for your broadband service, we will continue to provide you with your NordVPN service until such time as you instruct us to cancel it.” The broadband provider has since been removed from several major price comparison websites.
Under UK trading rules, businesses are not allowed to sign up customers for third-party services without their consent and once ISPreview reported the incident to Ofcom it confirmed that it would be investigating the matter. A spokesperson for Ofcom told ISPreview: “These reports are concerning, and we will be raising this with Onestream. The practice of automatically opting customers into a service without their agreement and later charging for it if they do not cancel is known as inertia selling, and consumer legislation expressly prohibits this.”
Onestream told ISPreview that the offer was only made to a “limited number of qualifying customers” before the service was rolled out on September 1. It also told the publication that no customer data had been shared with NordVPN. The broadband provider also noted that customers needed to “activate the offer” by clicking the link in the email.
However, the broadband firm did acknowledge that the messaging in its original email was not clear and it would be updating the offer and wording to make it clearer. In an update published around 15 minutes after the original article went live, Onestream said: “Nobody has been charged and nobody will be charged unless they opt in“. It also noted that if anyone felt they had been “unfairly” charged they should contact the firms account management team.
The full statement from Onestream said: “This offer is designed to give Onestream customers the opportunity to benefit from additional security and protection from cyber threats. Onestream have initially made the offer exclusively to a limited number of qualifying customers, before the service goes fully live on September 1.
“No Onestream customer data has been shared with NordVPN. Onestream provides a single click link for customers to choose to activate the offer, at which point they agree to send their email address to NordVPN so they can receive their licence key. There is no contracted period, and Onestream pay the full costs of the free trial. Customers can call, email, chat or login to their Onestream account at any time to cancel. Onestream is committed to compliance with all relevant consumer protection and data protection legislation. If any customer feels they have been unfairly charged, we would encourage them to contact us.”
Onestream offers very cheap broadband deals with prices for 24 month tariffs offering speeds of 74Mbps usually starting at around £20 a month. However, these tariffs usually come with extra costs that aren’t fully integrated into the advertised price.
For example, if you don’t have your own ADSL broadband router, you’ll need to pay an extra £3.20 a month to get one from Onestream. Alongside this, the firm automatically signs all new customers up for its “Onestream Assured” service which is supposed to provide customers with priority call-outs and waive other charges, although customers have reported this isn’t usually the case. This service is free for the first two months and then £4.95 a month after. Customers are also signed up for McAfee Multi Access, an antivirus software that is free for the first month but then costs £34.95 annually thereafter.
Onestream has also been fined by Ofcom in the past. In 2019, it received a £35,000 fine after it took over phone services of 118 people with the majority being elderly and/or vulnerable. This practice is called “slamming” and is a severe form of mis-selling phrase specifically used to describe transferring telephone services over to a new provider without the account holder’s consent. Onestream was found to have done this by cold calling individuals and making “repeated attempts” to switch people over.
