BT: tribunal against British Telecom seeking £1.3bn for three million landline customers due to begin

A class action tribunal seeking £1.3billion in compensation for more than three million BT customers is set to begin.

It comes after Ofcom ruled in 2017 that BT had unfairly charged its landline customers following an investigating beginning in 2015. While BT had agreed at the tie to reduce the price of its landline charges following Ofcom's ruling, Collective Action on Land Lines (Call) founder Justin Le Patourel took the issue to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, believing that on top of the reduction in price, customers should be entitled to compensation.

Mr Le Patourel's case is now proceeding to a full trial at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, following multiple appeals. Customers could be in line for a compensation payout of between £300 and £400 each depending on the length of their contract at the time.

Mr Le Patourel said: “We believe BT has been systematically overcharging millions of customers over many years, and those customers could be owed hundreds of pounds each. Time really is of the essence. More than 40% of our claimants are aged over 70, and over 150 of them are dying every day. It really is vital that BT should refund every one of them as soon as possible.”

A BT spokesman said: “We take our responsibilities to 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 as such are committed to robustly defending our position at trial.”