Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance secures victory for EE in landmark Court of Appeal ruling

Clifford Chance represented EE in an appeal brought by Phones 4u in one of the largest standalone competition claims to go to trial before the English courts.

In the summer of 2022, Clifford Chance represented EE in the High Court in a ten-week trial of claims brought by the administrators of Phones 4u alleging anticompetitive collusion against EE, Vodafone, O2 and their respective European parent companies. Those claims were rejected on all grounds by Mr Justice Roth in a judgment handed down on 11 November 2023.

Phones 4u appealed that judgment, and on 11 July 2025, following a 5-day hearing in May 2025, the Court of Appeal handed down its unanimous decision dismissing all six of Phones 4u’s grounds of appeal.

This landmark ruling clarifies the law on concerted practices and is of wider significance to competition authorities and private litigants (the Competition and Markets Authority intervened in the appeal). The judgment also adds to recent Court of Appeal authority on the standard of appellate review applicable to factual findings in a significantly delayed judgment.

The Clifford Chance team was led by Partners Sam Ward, Jeremy Kosky and Ben Jasper, supported by Senior Associates Charles Joseph and Ryan Byrne, and Trainee Charlie McCann.

Sam Ward, comments:

“The judgment provides welcome clarity on how competition law deals with passive recipients of anticompetitive approaches and the proper approach to related causation issues. It also emphasises the importance of trial judges producing decisions in a timely manner, whilst recognising that a significant delay in doing so does not necessarily render a carefully prepared judgment unsafe. It should be reassuring to litigants that the trial judge’s meticulously prepared judgment in this case, which dismissed Phones 4u’s claims on all grounds, has been left undisturbed.”