Millions of UK mobile customers may be owed compensation as Vodafone, EE, O2, and Three face a multi-billion-pound lawsuit over alleged overcharging, following a tribunal ruling.
The lawsuit, also targeting Telefonica’s O2 and Hutchison’s Three UK, whose $19 billion merger with Vodafone was approved last year, is valued at over £3.2 billion ($4.29 billion).
On Friday, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) dismissed claims for losses incurred before October 2015, ruling that they were filed too late. However, claims for losses after October 2015 were certified to proceed to trial.
Lawyers representing British consumer champion Justin Gutmann allege that the networks charged millions of customers a “loyalty penalty” by continuing to bill for mobile devices that had already been paid off after the minimum contract period ended.
The networks’ legal teams have countered that the lawsuit is fundamentally flawed, arguing it alleges anti-competitive behavior in “an industry renowned for its competitiveness”.
“We maintain that there is no merit to Mr Gutmann’s case for the remaining period and will continue to robustly defend our position as it proceeds”.
EE said it does not accept the substantive allegations and intends to defend the claims robustly. O2 welcomed the narrowing of the case but stressed:
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