Appeal against part of judgment on disclosure of work-related information on personal devices
On 17 July 2020, Orange SA (“Orange”) and Deutsche Telekom AG (“Deutsche Telekom”) requested permission to appeal against part of the judgment of Mr Justice Roth regarding disclosure, which was handed down subsequent to the CMC on 2 and 3 July 2020 (para 63 (ix)), as follows:
“each of Orange, DT, Vodafone and Telefonica should write to four of its custodians, to be selected by P4U, to request access, under the terms and upon the undertakings set out above, to their personal mobile telephones and emails for the purpose of searching for work related communications over the relevant period relevant to the issues in this case; and provide to P4U copies of their letters and any replies.”
The requests for permission to appeal are linked below:
On 3 August 2020, Mr Justice Roth gave permission to appeal. The reasons for allowing permission to appeal are here.
On 7 August 2020, Vodafone and O2 filed applications with the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal the same part of the disclosure judgment, and these were granted by Lord Justice Lewison on 17 September 2020. The relevant part of the order issued by Mr Justice Roth following the second CMC has been stayed pending the resolution of these appeals. The stay orders as granted by Mr Justice Roth are linked here (for Vodafone) and here (for Phones 4U, with regards to its related obligations seeking access to personal devices).
Links to the applications for permission to appeal, Phones 4U’s brief submissions on the further appeals by Vodafone and Telefonica, and the orders of Lord Justice Lewison can be found below:
Phones 4U’s brief submissions regarding Vodafone’s application for PTA
Phones 4U’s brief submissions regarding Telefonica’s application for PTA
The hearing of the appeals is scheduled to be held in the Court of Appeal on 19 January 2021, and is estimated to last for 1 - 1.5 days.