Comcast will forfeit $2.3 million to settle a nationwide investigation into the company’s negative option billing practices — charging customers for services and equipment they declined or never requested.

The fine from the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau is the largest penalty ever assessed against a cable operator, and comes with a requirement that going forward, Comcast get clear consent from customers approving any future products or services that could impact their cable bill.

The FCC, in a news release, compared Comcast’s actions to “cramming” unauthorized/fraudulent charges on telephone bills and said FCC rules specifically prohibited cable providers from charging customers for services or equipment they did not request.

“It is basic that a cable bill should include charges only for services and equipment ordered by the customer—nothing more and nothing less,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “We expect all cable and phone companies to take responsibility for the accuracy of their bills and to ensure their customers have authorized any charges.”

The FCC was showered with complaints for years about Comcast’s allegedly unethical business practices of billing for customer-owned modems, modems that were returned, unwanted premium channels, extra set-top boxes and DVRs. Many complainants accused Comcast of sending equipment or adding services even when those customers specifically declined them. Others discovered they were being billed for equipment they did not request, never received, or returned previously.

The FCC found consumers were inconvenienced and spent “significant time and energy” attempting to prove their case to get the unauthorized charges removed from current and past bills.

Under a consent agreement with Comcast, the company must  implement a five-year compliance plan.

“Specifically, Comcast will adopt processes and procedures designed to obtain affirmative informed consent from customers prior to charging them for any new services or equipment,” the FCC news release stated. “Comcast will also send customers an order confirmation separate from any other bill, clearly and conspicuously describing newly added products and their associated charges. Further, Comcast will offer to customers, at no cost, the ability to block the addition of new services or equipment to their accounts. In addition, the settlement requires Comcast to implement a detailed program for redressing disputed charges in a standardized and expedient fashion, and limits adverse action (such as referring an account to collections or suspending service) while a disputed charge is being investigated.”

A Comcast spokesperson denied the FCC’s accusations and called reports of erroneous billing “isolated errors” that resulted from “employee error” and “customer confusion.”

“We have been working very hard on improving the experience of our customers in all respects and are laser-focused on this,” Comcast said in a statement. “We acknowledge that, in the past, our customer service should have been better and our bills clearer, and that customers have at times been unnecessarily frustrated or confused. That’s why we had already put in place many improvements to do better for our customers even before the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau started this investigation almost two years ago. The changes the bureau asked us to make were in most cases changes we had already committed to make, and many were already well underway or in our work plan to implement in the near future.”