UK mobile companies face mass lawsuit for allegedly overcharging customers

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LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s biggest mobile network providers including Vodafone and BT’s EE are facing a multi-billion-pound lawsuit for allegedly overcharging customers, after a London tribunal ruled on Friday that part of it could continue.

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 – was valued at over 3.2 billion pounds ($4.29 billion).

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in a ruling on Friday threw out those parts of the case claiming losses from before October 2015 as having been brought too late.

But the CAT certified claims for losses from after October 2015 could proceed to trial.

Lawyers representing British consumer champion Justin Gutmann alleged the networks charged millions of British consumers 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 off.

The networks’ lawyers argued, however, that the lawsuit is fundamentally flawed as it alleges anti-competitive behaviour “in an industry renowned for its competitiveness”.

EE said on Friday it did not accept the substantive allegations of the claim and intended to defend them robustly, while O2 said it welcomed the reduction in scope of the claim.

“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,” an O2 spokesperson said.

VodafoneThree did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young and Catarina Demony)