Mobile phone companies sued for overcharging loyal customers

The UK’s four main mobile phone companies are being sued for more than £3bn for overcharging loyal customers.

EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone are accused of abusing their dominant market position by failing to reduce customers’ charges once their handsets had been paid for in full.

Millions affected

It is believed between 2.3 million and 4.8 million contract customers have been affected by the practice.

The class action claim has been brought by former Citizens Advice executive Justin Gutmann and the law firm Charles Lyndon.

According to Mr Gutmann, if the claim is successful, affected customers could receive as much as £1,823 each.

What should I do if I think I’ve been overcharged?

If you think you’ve been overcharged and you want to be a part of the class action, you don’t need to do a thing.

All qualifying customers will be automatically included in the claim for free, although you can opt out if you choose to.

Super complaint

The class action comes after Citizens Advice made a super complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2018 about the practice.

Unfair and must be stopped

The CMA said:

“We do not consider that providers should continue to charge customers the same rate once they have effectively paid off their handsets at the end of the minimum contract period.

“This is unfair and must be stopped.”