Judgment of the Tribunal in relation to the claim brought by Mr Justin Le Patourel as the Class Representative in respect of approximately 2.3 million BT customers.
The details of the class and claim period were set out in the Collective Proceedings Order dated 15 January 2021 as follows:
“The Class shall be defined as: “all persons domiciled in any part of the United Kingdom (except in the Hull Area) – or their UK-domiciled personal representatives – who, during the Claim Period, bought a BT Standalone Fixed Voice Service except for the Excluded Services (referred to below as “the Class Members”)”, whereby:
(a) BT Standalone Fixed Voice Service means any residential landline calling plan service provided by BT, except for the Excluded Services, which (i) includes landline line rental and (ii) has not been sold as part of a bundle with broadband. For these purposes, a bundle refers to a contract, or two or more closely related, linked or interdependent contracts which, individually or together, include and require the purchase of broadband as well as the landline calling plan service.
(b) Excluded Services means BT Basic and BT Home Phone Saver.
(c) Hull Area means the area defined as the Licence Area in the licence granted on 30 November 1987 by the Secretary of State under Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 to Kingston upon Hull City Council and Kingston Communications (Hull) plc.
(d) The Claim Period means:
(i) for residential BT Voice Only Customers, between 1 October 2015 and 1 April 2018 inclusive;
(ii) for business BT Voice Only Customers, between 1 October 2015 and the date of the Tribunal’s final determination of the Claims made by the Sub-class of BT Voice Only Customers or their earlier settlement (or settlement of any part thereof); and
(iii) for BT Split Purchase Customers, between 1 October 2015 and the date of the Tribunal’s final determination of the Claims made by the Subclass of BT Split Purchase Customer or their earlier settlement (or settlement of any part thereof).”
For the reasons specified in the Judgment, and summarised in the Executive Summary accompanying the Judgment, the claim was dismissed.
A Glossary of defined terms also accompanies the Judgment.
