Name: UK 4G smartphone owners may be due £480m payout
Brand: bbc.co.uk
SKU: bbc-co-uk-2742
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

UK 4G smartphone owners may be due £480m payout

preview

About 29 million people in the UK may be entitled to compensation of up to £30 each if a legal claim from watchdog Which? is successful.It is suing chipmaker Qualcomm, claiming it breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent licensing and chip markets.Which? alleges that it charged inflated fees to manufacturers, which were then passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices.Qualcomm said the case had "no basis"."As the plaintiffs are well aware, their claims were effectively put to rest last summer by a unanimous panel of judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States," a spokesman told the BBC.Which? is seeking damages for all affected Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased since 1 October 2015. It estimates individuals could be entitled to up to £30 compensation each, depending on the type of smartphone they bought.Anabel Hoult, chief executive of Which? said: "We believe Qualcomm's practices are anti-competitive and have so far taken around £480m from consumers' pockets - this needs to stop."We are sending a clear warning that if companies like Qualcomm indulge in manipulative practices which harm consumers, Which? is prepared to take action."It has filed its legal claim with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which will decide if it can go ahead.Qualcomm, one of the world's biggest producers of mobile phone chips, has faced a series of allegations about anti-competitive behaviour.In 2018, the European Commission fined the firm €997m (£858m) for violating competition laws in a series of deals it made with Apple.And in 2019, it issued another €242m fine for abusing its dominant position in the 3G chipset market, following a four-year investigation. Qualcomm is appealing against both findings.The Federal Trade Commission in the United States also sued the firm for unfair practices in the way it licensed its technology back in 2017, but had its case dismissed last year.

About 29 million people in the UK may be entitled to compensation of up to £30 each if a legal claim from watchdog Which? is successful.It is suing chipmaker Qualcomm, claiming it breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent licensing and chip markets.Which? alleges that it charged inflated fees to manufacturers, which were then passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices.Qualcomm said the case had "no basis"."As the plaintiffs are well aware, their claims were effectively put to rest last summer by a unanimous panel of judges at the...

public

Jane Wakefield

 News, features and analysis. For world news, follow  @BBCWorld . Breaking news, follow  @BBCBreaking . Latest sport news  @BBCSport . Our Instagram: BBCNews

bbc.co.uk

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

UK 4G smartphone owners may be due £480m payout

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS