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The case begins today at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London
BT is set to appear in court today to face a class action lawsuit that claims the operator had has “disproportionately overcharged” its historic landline customers.
The claim, which is backed by over three million claimants, alleges that BT excessively overcharged customers by exploiting their dominant position in the market. It is based on an Ofcom market review in 2016/7, which found that landline-only customers were getting worse value for money than people who purchased bundled services including broadband and/or pay-TV.
BT subsequently agreed to lower its prices in 2018, but the class action lawsuit was nonetheless launched in 2021 to provide compensation to affected customers. The scope of the lawsuit was later expanded to include BT customers who were paying for landline and broadband services separately and were given a worse price than those that purchased bundles.
BT has denied that its prices at the time were “anti-competitive” and appealed accordingly. However, this appeal was rejected in May 2022, with the CAT allowing the case to go to trial.
The lawsuit is momentous, as it is the first class action lawsuit to reach trial since 2015, when the law changed to allow collective legal action to be taken against breaches of competition law.
The claimants are seeking £300–£400 per person in compensation.
“Time really is of the essence,” said lead claimant representative Justin Le Patourel. “More than 40% of our claimants are aged over 70, and over 150 of them are dying every day. It really is vital that BT should refund every one of them as soon as possible.”
BT, meanwhile, remains firm that it has done nothing wrong and will defend itself in court.
“We take our responsibilities to our customers very seriously and are dedicated to keeping our customers connected, while helping those who need it most,” said a BT representative in a statement.
“This claim relates to a technical landline pricing issue which was resolved by Ofcom in 2017. We do not accept that our pricing was anti-competitive back then, and are committed to robustly defending our position at trial.”
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