Dodo and iPrimus have been hit with heavy fines for making misleading claims about the speed of their NBN broadband plans.

The Federal Court has ordered iPrimus to pay a $1 million penalty, while Dodo was slugged for $1.5 million.

The lawsuit was lodged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which said the companies made claims about their “typical evening speed” which did not stand up to scrutiny.

“The ACCC brought this case because we were concerned that the methodology which the Vocus Group used as the basis for its speed claims cherry-picked only the fastest speeds its network could deliver, and ignored the slower speeds many of its customers experienced,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.

“These misleading speed claims meant consumers could not accurately compare different offerings and make an informed choice about their broadband provider.”

Dodo and iPrimus are both subsidiaries of ASX-listed telco Vocus Group — which has a 5.2 per cent market share in the consumer NBN market, and about 436,000 retail broadband customers.

-more to come