Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Court of Appeal (England and Wales) upholds Roth J: Phones 4u collusion case against mobile networks dismissed; no error of law; judgment delay guidance rejects rigid three‑month rule

Published on: 15 July 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

A trio of appeal justices unanimously threw out claims against executives from five leading mobile networks—EE, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica—accusing them of colluding to push Phones 4u into administration. At a May 2025 hearing, the administrators contended that High Court Judge Peter Roth had ‘misapplied key concepts of competition law’ in dismissing allegations that the networks had jointly decided to remove their products from the retailer. They maintained the 2014 decision to cease supplying Phones 4u was not taken independently, but stemmed from an unlawful conspiracy. All six grounds advanced were rejected on 11 July 2025. The Court of Appeal held that Roth J had ‘made no material error of law’. Central to the appeal was a lunch meeting between Ronan Dunne, then O2 chief executive, and his EE counterpart, Olaf Swantee, at a London hotel. Roth J concluded that although Dunne sought to broach pricing strategy with a competitor, Swantee’s absence of any affirmative response meant the exchanges neither contravened EU or UK law nor affected O2’s decision to end its relationship with Phones 4u...

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