The UK High Court has denied a “fanciful” attempt from BT to sue Virgin Mobile (VMO2) after EE accused the operator of terminating their network access agreement before its expiry.
Virgin Mobile signed a MVNO deal with EE in 2013, enabling its customers to use services powered by BT’s 3G and 4G network in infrastructure.
But in 2019, Virgin ended its contract with EE and signed a five-year deal with Vodafone. This would come into effect late in 2021.
Since then, Virgin Media has merged with O2, cancelling the Vodafone agreement.
BT had accused VMO2 of breaching the terms of their agreement by allowing its non-5G customers to be migrated away from EE’s network and to its competitors before the contract had officially expired.
BT added that it had warned Virgin multiple times and was seeking £24.6 million in compensation.
However, the High Court Justice Joanna Smith DBE ruled against the bid, describing it as “fanciful” before noting that it had “no real prospect of succeeding”.
A Virgin Media spokesperson said:
“We’ve always been very clear that we fully honoured our former mobile agreement with BT while giving our customers access to 5G as soon as possible. We’re pleased that the court has ruled in our favour and summarily dismissed EE’s claim against us.”
BT said:
“we are disappointed by the court’s judgment and will now carefully review the findings before considering next steps”.
