{"id":29865,"date":"2025-10-06T08:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T12:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29865"},"modified":"2025-10-06T08:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T12:26:09","slug":"apple-and-samsung-users-could-be-due-share-of-480m-payout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/10\/06\/apple-and-samsung-users-could-be-due-share-of-480m-payout\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple and Samsung users could be due share of \u00a3480m payout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-suhx0k-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5p6v2-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Nearly 30 million people in the UK who bought an Apple or Samsung smartphone between 2015 and 2024 may be entitled to about \u00a317 if the consumer campaign group Which? is successful in a case against US tech giant Qualcomm.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The consumer group is taking the tech giant to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The trial between Which? and Qualcomm is expected to last five weeks. The consumer group is accusing the chip company of anti-competitive practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It claims the firm forced Apple and Samsung to pay inflated prices and licensing fees for essential handset components, which then pushed up the cost of those smartphones for consumers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-suhx0k-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5p6v2-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The BBC has reached out to Qualcomm for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The trial starting on Monday will focus on whether Qualcomm held market power and, if so, whether it abused a dominant position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If Which? is successful, there will be a second stage seeking \u00a3480m from Qualcomm, to be distributed among an estimated 29 million British phone owners affected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But it could be years until this second stage concludes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We filed this claim back in 2021, so this first trial being now in 2025 &#8211; it&#8217;s obviously a bit of a slog,&#8221; senior Which? lawyer Lisa Webb told the Today programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But the real benefit of this system is that as a consumer, you don&#8217;t need to do anything&#8230; if we win, we will get you your money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The consumer group is seeking damages for all affected Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased between 1 October 2015 and 9 January 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It says this would probably work out at around \u00a317 per handset. Qualcomm has previously said the case has &#8220;no basis&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A similar case against Qualcomm is ongoing in Canada, and the firm has also\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-42806404\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previously been fined by the EU for antitrust<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Anabel Hoult, chief executive of Which?, said: &#8220;This trial is a huge moment. It shows how the power of consumers &#8211; backed by Which? &#8211; can be used to hold the biggest companies to account if they abuse their dominant position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Qualcomm is one of the world&#8217;s biggest producers of smartphone chips and has faced allegations about anti-competitive behaviour before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Federal Trade Commission in the United States sued the firm for unfair practices in the way it licensed its technology back in 2017, but had its case dismissed in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cn0rn7rwk24o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Nearly 30 million people in the UK who bought an Apple or Samsung smartphone between 2015 and 2024 may be entitled to about \u00a317 if the consumer campaign group Which? is successful in a case <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/10\/06\/apple-and-samsung-users-could-be-due-share-of-480m-payout\/\" title=\"Apple and Samsung users could be due share of \u00a3480m payout\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,4],"tags":[408,409,10789],"class_list":{"0":"post-29865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-uk","10":"tag-apple","11":"tag-samsung","12":"tag-which","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29867,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865\/revisions\/29867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}