Judgment of the Tribunal on an application by the Proposed Class Representative (“PCR”) for a collective proceedings order (“CPO”), pursuant to section 47B of the Competition Act 1998 (the “1998 Act”). The CPO application seeks to combine, on an opt-out basis, the claims of consumers and business entities who have purchased, or were gifted, certain Apple iPhone models in particular iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus (“Affected iPhones”). The PCR’s complaint concerns the way Apple addressed the problem of unexpected power offs (“UPOs”) in Affected iPhones from 2016.
The PCR’s case is that the members of the Proposed Class have suffered loss as a result of the Proposed Defendants’ (“Apple”) breaches of statutory duty by infringing: (i) the Chapter II prohibition on abuse of dominance in section 18 of the 1998 Act; and (ii) until 31 December 2020, the EU prohibition on abuse of dominance in Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Apple made applications for reverse summary judgment or to strike out: (i) the claim in its entirety on the ground that the Affected iPhones were substandard or fell short of advertised expectations; and (ii) the claim insofar as it relates to acts which took place after 28 December 2017.
The Tribunal decided that the requirements of a CPO are met in this case, subject to the resolution of the terms of the PCR’s funding arrangements. Apple’s application to strike out the claim was dismissed, and the Tribunal declined to strike out the allegation of abuse after 28 December 2017.
