T-Mobile has won its bid to appeal a judge’s ruling that allowed a potential class of millions of Verizon and AT&T subscribers to move ahead with a lawsuit challenging the company's $26 billion purchase of rival Sprint in 2020.
Illinois U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin on Wednesday ruled that T-Mobile can appeal his order to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals now, rather than at a later stage in the case.
The private consumer lawsuit alleges the merger has caused Verizon and AT&T, which are not defendants, to charge more for wireless service. The plaintiffs want the courts to undo the combination.
T-Mobile and the plaintiffs' attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Durkin’s Wednesday ruling sets up what is expected to be a closely watched appeal testing the scope of antitrust law.
At the heart of the challenge, T-Mobile argues that subscribers of Verizon and AT&T have no legal “standing” to pursue billions of dollars in alleged damages over T-Mobile’s Sprint deal. T-Mobile contends AT&T and Verizon control their own networks' prices, and that the plaintiffs' claims cannot be attributable to the merger.
T-Mobile and Sprint previously defeated a separate court challenge to the merger from a group of states, and the U.S. Justice Department reached a settlement with the merged company requiring some divestiture of assets.
The consumers' proposed class action was brought by seven AT&T or Verizon subscribers in Illinois and Indiana. They called the T-Mobile-Sprint deal "one of the most anti-competitive acquisitions in history."
Durkin in November declined to dismiss the lawsuit.
Attorneys for T-Mobile urged Durkin to allow an appeal now for the sake of efficiency. They argued that the plaintiffs’ “expansive conception of antitrust standing is unprecedented." They
The plaintiffs’ lawyers in a filing in December said the case should be heard by a jury before any appeal.
They argued that a “potentially years-long delay” in the appeals court would only make it harder to unwind a merger that is already four years old.
The case is Dale v. Deutsche Telekom AG, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 1:22-cv-03189.
For plaintiffs: Brendan Glackin of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; Gary Smith Jr of Hausfeld; Eric Cramer of Berger Montague; and Joel Flaxman and Kenneth Flaxman of Kenneth N. Flaxman PC
For T-Mobile: Clifford Histed of K&L Gates; and Rachel Brass of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
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T-Mobile seeks quick appeal to halt US consumer lawsuit over Sprint deal
T-Mobile must face private antitrust lawsuit over $26 bln Sprint deal - US judge
