UK mobile companies face mass lawsuit for allegedly overcharging customers

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's biggest mobile network providers including Vodafone and BT's EE are facing a multi-billion-pound lawsuit for allegedly overcharging customers, after a London tribunal ruled on Friday that part of it could continue.

The case – which is also brought against Telefonica's O2 and Hutchison's Three UK, whose $19 billion merger with Vodafone was approved last year – was valued at over 3.2 billion pounds ($4.29 billion).

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in a ruling on Friday threw out those parts of the case claiming losses from before October 2015 as having been brought too late.

But the CAT certified claims for losses from after October 2015 could proceed to trial.

Lawyers representing British consumer champion Justin Gutmann alleged the networks charged millions of British consumers who remained with the network after their minimum contract expired a "loyal penalty", by continuing to charge for mobile devices which had already been paid off.

The networks' lawyers argued, however, that the lawsuit is fundamentally flawed as it alleges anti-competitive behaviour "in an industry renowned for its competitiveness".

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young)