Navigating Unfair Pricing Claims: Key Insights From The Le Patourel Judgment

The first substantive judgment under the UK's collective action regime was handed down in December 2024, in the case of Justin Le Patourel v BT Group PLC. Acting on behalf of 2.3m BT customers, Mr Le Patourel (the CR) claimed up to £1.3bn in damages for an allegedly abusive overcharge in respect of standalone fixed voice services.

Le Patourel is the latest in a line of Competition Appeal Tribunal (Tribunal) judgments addressing unfair pricing under UK competition law. Until now, those judgments have largely concerned appeals against CMA infringement decisions (e.g. Liothyronine, Hydrocortisone and Phenytoin). But standalone claims like Le Patourel are arguably more informative, as they force the Tribunal to address the contested issues head-on, rather than defer to the CMA's "margin of appreciation". This latest judgmentcould therefore prove instructive in predicting how the Tribunal will approach the wave of unfair pricing claims recently commenced under the UK's