16 January 2024 , 14:56
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Millions of BT customers could get a payout worth £500 over historical overcharges if an upcoming court case is successful.
In 2017, industry watchdog Ofcom said that BT had unfairly charged millions of landline customers from 2015 after an investigation. At the time, BT agreed to reduce the price of its landlord by £7 a month. Despite lowering prices Justin Le Patourel, founder of the Collective Action on Land Lines (CALL) took the issue to the Competition Appeal Tribunal as he believed the telecoms provider owed compensation payments. He said many were vulnerable and were rightly owed refunds for the overpayments.
In 2021, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) approved a bid to launch a £600million class action compensation claim against BT on behalf of over two million current and former customers. After a series of unsuccessful appeals, the bid has finally been approved and the case will now proceed to a full trial starting on January 29 2024.
The court expects to finish hearing all of the evidence in the case by 22 March 2024 after which a judgement will be made afterwards. It is not certain how long it will take to get to the judgement.
Mishcon de Reya, the law firm working on the care, argues that customers could be in line for payments of up to £500 each if the case is successful. Anyone who is affected will automatically be represented and do not need to take any steps to join the case - the deadline to opt out has now passed.
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BT had previously appealed for the proceedings to be an "opt-in" case - this means all 2.3 million members would've needed to sign up for the claim before it could proceed. However, this was rejected by the Competition Appeal Tribunal on 6 May 2022.
BT customers who are covered by the trial and could be eligible for payouts include:
- Voice Only Customers - People who had a BT landline service between October 2015 and April 2018, but did not also receive a broadband service - from BT or any other provider)
- Split Purchase Customers - People who had a BT landline service alongside a broadband service - from BT or another provider - at any time since October 2015, but who did not "bundle" these services together into a single, discounted package
On the case, a BT spokesperson said: "We do not accept that our pricing was anti-competitive back then, and as such are committed to robustly defending our position at trial.”