MILLIONS of BT customers could get up to £500 in compensation thanks to a major class action lawsuit.
It comes as £600million class action claim against BT goes to a full trial today (January 29).
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The lawsuit is alleging that the firm overcharged elderly and low-income customers.
The class action was first given the go-ahead in September 2021.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) said it expects the hearing of all the evidence to come to an end on March 22.
After this time, a judgement can be made but it’s not known how long it will take for the CAT to reach a decision.
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Between the claim being put forward and the trial, BT appealed against it.
The telecoms giant wanted the legal action to be an opt-in process.
That means the 2.3million customers who are thought to have been affected would have to manually sign up to be involved.
It was feared that an opt-in process would mean many eligible customers would not sign up and would miss out on hundreds of pounds in compensation as a result.
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But the appeal was dismissed in May 2022 and it will now go ahead on an opt-out basis instead.
That means all customers who are eligible for compensation will be automatically signed up to the claim, but will have the choice to opt out if they don’t wish to be involved.
The issue relates to historic prices that BT charged for its landline-only tariff between 2015 and 2018.
The company cut the cost of its line rental from £18.99 to £11.99 a month in 2018 after a review by the regulator found “serious concerns about soaring bills“.
BT made the £84-a-year price cut to reduce future bills for customers, but did not compensate them for what they had paid to that point.
It is estimated a total of £600million is owed to customers.
A BT Group spokesperson said: “We take our responsibilities to our customers very seriously and are dedicated to keeping our customers connected, while helping those who need it most.
“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.”
Who could get compensation?
The case is being brought by Justin Le Patourel – founder of action group Collective Action on Land Lines (CALL).
Class action legal cases aim to chase compensation for millions of customers that companies have let down.
Under the cases, one person takes a company to court on behalf of consumers.
The lawsuits have long been popular in the US but until recently didn’t happen in the UK.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 changed all that and 2023 has already seen many major cases progressing.
Le Patourel will be able to claim on behalf of BT’s “Voice Only Customers” who had a landline service between October 2015 and April 2018, who did not also receive a broadband service from BT or any other provider.
He can also claim for “Split Purchase Customers” who had BT landline service and broadband in a separate deal from either BT or another provider at any time since October 2015.
If the trial is successful, some 2.3million BT customers could be set to receive compensation of up to £500 each.
All eligible customers should now be automatically represented and you do not need to do anything.
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But you can opt-out if you don’t want to be involved.
You can find out more or register for updates on the CALL website. You can also contact CALL by calling 0333 212 1617.
