BT is seeking £24.6 million from Virgin Media O2 over claims it migrated customers from its network before an agreement had concluded.
In a High Court filing posted last month, BT says Virgin breached the terms of its MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreement when non-5G customers were migrated from its EE network to those of Telefónica and Vodafone before its BT contract had expired.
In November 2019, Virgin gave notice to BT that it was dropping the agreement with BT Enterprise, soon after BT took control of the EE business, and move its 3.3 million mobile customers to Vodafone in late 2021.
However, by January 2021 Virgin was already offering 5G to customers over the Vodafone network.
By mid-year Virgin Media had merged its UK operations with Telefonica’s O2 and terminated its agreement with Vodafone early. Virgin completed the move to the Telefónica network early in 2022.
Law360, which first reported the story, says BT’s case rests on the assertion that non-5G customers also found themselves a part of the migration process. The telco says it warned Virgin on multiple occasions, but Virgin refused to carry out any checks.
A BT spokesperson told Broadband TV News: “BT is taking legal action against Virgin Media with respect to a breach of an MVNO agreement Virgin Media had with EE. It would be inappropriate to comment further due to the ongoing legal proceedings.”
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We always complied with the terms of our former mobile agreement with BT and we will robustly defend our position against this claim.”
