Around 29,000,000 UK Apple and Samsung smartphone owners could be owed money if a class action against technology giant Qualcomm is successful.
Consumer group Which? has brought the claim to court, focusing on whether Qualcomm held market power and, if so, whether it abused its dominant position.
The trial will run for five weeks, beginning today, at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
If Which?’s first trial is successful, there will then be a second trial focusing on Qualcomm’s conduct and the damage suffered by the class, which Which? has calculated at around £480 million.
It’s alleged Qualcomm breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent-licensing and chipset markets.
This resulted in Qualcomm being able to charge manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung inflated fees for technology licences, which have then been passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices or lower-quality smartphones.
Which? is seeking damages for all Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased between October 1, 2015, and January 9, 2024.
Individual consumers could be due an average of around £17 per phone if the action is successful, Which? estimates.
Which? said the action is intended to ‘send a clear message to powerful companies like Qualcomm that if they engage in harmful, anticompetitive practices, Which? stands ready to take action’.
Chief executive Anabel Hoult said: ‘This trial is a huge moment. It shows how the power of consumers – backed by Which? – can be used to hold the biggest companies to account if they abuse their dominant position.
‘Without Which? bringing this claim on behalf of millions of affected UK consumers, it would simply not be realistic for people to seek damages from the company on an individual basis – that’s why it’s so important that consumers can come together and claim the redress they are entitled to.’
In 2023, Apple was forced to pay out after the iPhone ‘batterygate’ case, when the company deliberately reduced the performance of devices.
In 2017, Apple’s iOS 10.2.1 update tweaked the performance of older iPhones with degraded batteries to prevent them from shutting down.
This effectively meant the battery could not keep up, leading to slower performance on phones released between 2014 and 2016. The only way to restore full performance was to replace the degraded battery.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.