UK Class-Action Targets Mobile Phone Operators With $4.15 Billion Damages Claim

The biggest UK mobile phone operators could face total damages of $4.15 billion following class-action claims that they allegedly charged 5 million existing customers "loyalty penalties" over a 16-year period. From a report: Claimant lawyers say they filed court documents at the Competition Appeals Tribunal against Vodafone, EE, Three UK and O2 last week. The claims accuse the phone companies of overcharging on as many as 28.2 million contracts by not reducing the amount customers had to pay after their minimum terms expired, despite them having effectively paid off their mobile devices.

The claim consists of individual lawsuits against each company, with damages sought of up to $1.76 billion from Vodafone, up to $1.38 billion from EE, up to $637.8 million from Three, and up to $322 million from O2. Claimant lawyers at Charles Lyndon, a law firm, estimate that up to 4.8 million people could be affected. If the case is successful, someone who held a contract with one of the mobile operators could receiveÂup to $2,293. The claims are on an "opt-out" basis, which means all qualifying customers will be automatically included in the claim unless they make a choice not to join.

Good!

[Calydor]

The predatory practices of mobile providers need to be ripped out and burned.

I bought a phone in 2017. In 2021 my provider upgraded the plan I was on. In 2022 I tried to get out of the contract to get a new phone with a different provider, and was told that the upgrade - non-voluntary, mind you - counted as a new contract with them from which there was a two year lock-in.

Fucking scum.

Re:

[MrL0G1C]

Who is scum? Name them so the rest of us can avoid them otherwise you post is kind of pointless.

Re:

[Calydor]

Vodafone in Germany, but as I've come to understand since doing some research (read: Google searches when I was bored) on the subject it's standard practice across providers and countries.

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[MrL0G1C]

Doesn't sound legal, but of course it requires someone fight the tel co's. I don't think this would fly in the UK where the ombudsman would take one look at a complaint about it and slap it down. Not everything in UK is screwed... yet. I complained to the ombudsman here about a similarly rubbish practice where the tel co (Virgin Media) was trying to charge me for service after I had notified them to end my service, they claimed I couldn't quit my service until all bills were paid - some kind of bizarro land

Happened to me too

[fuzznutz]

When I paid off my phone on my last postpaid contract, they refused to lower my bill by the device payment cost. They offered to give me a new phone along with another two year contract. I had them unlock it and I left for the prepaid world and never looked back. No more contracts.

Use resellers

[MrL0G1C]

If you go with the main networks in the UK you get ripped off but if you buy your phone and then use 3rd parties like Lebara, Giffgaff or iD mobile then you get to use the network backbone of your choice without paying the high fees.

Lebara runs on Vodafone network, iD runs on the Three network, GiffGaff runs on the O2 network, Lyca runs on the EE network.

Re:

[mjwx]

If you go with the main networks in the UK you get ripped off but if you buy your phone and then use 3rd parties like Lebara, Giffgaff or iD mobile then you get to use the network backbone of your choice without paying the high fees.

Lebara runs on Vodafone network, iD runs on the Three network, GiffGaff runs on the O2 network, Lyca runs on the EE network.

This.

Sadly the practice of overcharging loyal customers (Read: people who don't shop around) is not just limited to telcos in the UK, the overpriced insurance industry is front and centre in doing this.

Across the pond, there was a similar scam

[sinkskinkshrieks]

Phone companies used to lease phones to their customers, sometimes at outrageous total costs. Mercedes heated seats subscriptions doesn't hold a candle to Ma Bell.