LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s biggest mobile network providers including Vodafone and BT’s EE on Monday urged a London tribunal to throw out a mass lawsuit valued at over 3.2 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) for allegedly overcharging customers.
The case – which is also brought against Telefonica’s O2 and Hutchison’s Three UK, whose $19 billion merger with Vodafone was approved last year – is being brought on behalf of over 28 million British consumers.
The networks are alleged to have charged customers who remained with the network after their minimum contract expired a “loyal penalty”, by continuing to charge for mobile devices which had already been paid for in full.
British consumer champion Justin Gutmann is bringing the claims and his lawyers asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case to proceed, an early step in the proceedings.
But the networks’ lawyers said in court filings that the lawsuit is fundamentally flawed as it alleges anti-competitive behaviour “in an industry renowned for its competitiveness”.
They also argue that large parts of the case, which seeks to recover losses dating back to 2007, were brought too late and should be thrown out.
The case is the latest lawsuit brought under Britain’s burgeoning class action-style regime, which recently reached its 10th anniversary and has seen several multi-billion-pound cases certified but with limited success for consumers so far.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young)
