UK court refuses permission to appeal in BT 'overcharging' lawsuit

LONDON (Reuters) -A bid to revive a 1.3 billion-pound ($1.71 billion) lawsuit against BT alleging the British telecoms company had overcharged millions of customers for fixed telephone lines was on Friday rejected by London's Court of Appeal.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled in favour of BT in December on a case which accused the former telecoms monopoly of excessively increasing prices.

Justin Le Patourel, who led the lawsuit on behalf of around 3.7 million BT customers, asked the Court of Appeal to grant permission to challenge that decision but his application was dismissed.

($1 = 0.7598 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Catarina Demony)