London, October 6, 2025 — The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal today starts hearing a damages claim by Consumers’ Association (Which?) against US tech giant Qualcomm. The five-week hearing will examine claims alleging that Qualcomm abused its dominant market position in mobile chip supply, leading to inflated prices for LTE-enabled smartphones purchased by millions of UK consumers.
The damages action was filed in February 2021 and was certified in July 2022. Which? is acting as the approved class representative on behalf of an estimated 29 million UK consumers who purchased LTE-enabled Apple or Samsung smartphones since October 2015.
The claim argues that Qualcomm — one of the world’s largest holders of cellular standard essential patents (SEPs) and a key supplier of LTE chipsets — leveraged its market dominance to force smartphone manufacturers to pay supra-competitive royalties. These royalties, calculated as a percentage of handset prices, allegedly functioned as an “industry-wide tax” that was ultimately passed on to UK consumers through higher prices or lower-quality products.
Which? contends that Qualcomm’s conduct violated Chapter II of the Competition Act and, prior to Brexit, Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both of which prohibit abuse of dominance.
Since the case’s filing, the CAT has overseen multiple procedural stages. Qualcomm initially challenged the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, but the application was withdrawn by consent in November 2021.
Over the following two years, the case has involved six case management conferences, several amendments to the claim, and multiple disclosure and procedural rulings, including those on expert evidence and rate setting.
In February 2023, the Tribunal granted Qualcomm’s partial strike-out application against certain passages in Which?’s reply. In July and October 2023, it issued rulings addressing amendments to the claim and rejecting Which?’s request for permission to appeal.
A pre-trial review was held before the Tribunal President on 29 July 2025 to finalise trial logistics.
Which? is represented by Hausfeld & Co
The case is 1382/7/7/21 Consumers’ Association v Qualcomm Incorporated before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Source: https://www.catribunal.org.uk/cases/13827721-consumers-association
