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2004

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) announced today that it has dismissed BT's appeal on the Carrier Pre Select (CPS) "Save" case. The CAT upheld the Director General of Telecommunications finding on 7 November 2003 that BT's "Save" activity in the course of CPS transfer had unlawfully misused confidential customer information for marketing purposes.

Bill Allan, Chief Executive Officer of THUS, said

"The dismissal of BT's appeal by the Tribunal vindicates our complaint and the Regulator's original decision, and reinforces the need for continued regulatory vigilance in the UK telecommunications market."

Background

In order to deliver CPS to a customer, THUS and other operators have to acquire wholesale services from BT and then liaise with BT to ensure that the new customer's calls are attributed to the new service providers' accounts. As BT would typically be losing the retail element of the service, it had been BT's habit to pass this information to BT Retail, who in turn would call the customer direct to "Save" the customer and ensure they did not defect from BT.

THUS, together with BVL and a consortium of other operators, complained to Oftel about this behaviour, alleging that it was in breach of regulations and in particular General Condition 1.2 of the new General Conditions of Entitlement. Oftel launched an investigation under the new laws (from the end of July 2003) and on 7 November 2003 reached a decision, notifying BT that its "Save" activity was in breach of General Condition 1.2. Under the Competition Act 2003, BT appealed that decision to the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The original complaint was made by THUS and BVL, who also participated in the appeal hearings as interveners, and was supported by Cable & Wireless, Centrica, Caudwell Communications, Kingston Communications, MCI, Opal (Carphone Warehouse), Telco, Tele2, Your Communications, Tesco and Vartec