Optus Fined $100 Million for Exploiting Vulnerable Customers

Court finds the telco pressured vulnerable people into contracts they could not afford or understand.
Optus Fined $100 Million for Exploiting Vulnerable Customers
General view of an Optus store in Sydney, Australia on Sept. 22, 2022. AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi
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Optus has been hit with a record $100 million penalty after the Federal Court found the telco engaged in “predatory” and “appalling” sales practices that targeted hundreds of vulnerable Australians over a four-year period.

The judgment comes as the company reels from its second Triple Zero outage in recent years, and subsequent revelations that four people may have died during that blackout.