Mobile 'phone litigation - don't hang up just yet …

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile telephone operator, is being sued in the US for allegedly causing brain cancer to users of its mobile telephone network. In July this year, for the first time, Vodafone formally disclosed to its shareholders in its annual report the existence of the early stage litigation against it, adding:

"The company is not aware that the health risks alleged in such personal injury claims have been substantiated and will be vigorously defending such claims".

If upheld, the potential exposures to these claims are thought to run into US $ Bns. Vodafone is no stranger to such claims. Class actions in the US were filed in 2001 against a company in which Vodafone owns a 45% stake. However, this time though, Vodafone is actually named as one of a group of five defendants, which consist of mobile telephone operators, equipment suppliers and handset manufacturers. Each of the 4 claimants seeks US $1M in punitive damages, as well as compensatory and other awards.

The latest action in which Vodafone is named comes after almost a decade of lawsuits against the mobile telephone industry of allegations of links to brain cancer, in which mobile telephone carriers and equipment manufacturers have yet to lose a case. However, neurologist Chris Newman, who is suffering from a brain tumour, now claims there is evidence of sufficient quality to show a causal link between mobile telephones and his condition. Attorney, Peter Angelos, who made his name by successfully pursuing product liability litigation against the tobacco industry, represents him.

A preliminary evidential hearing held in March in the US District Court of Baltimore, marked the first time a US court had analysed whether the accumulated scientific evidence was rigorous enough to be considered at trial and, if so, to determine which of it, if any, should be allowed at any subsequent trial. Judge Blake was persuaded by Angelos to allow the lawsuit, totalling US $800 M, to proceed to trial, the outcome of which will be eagerly anticipated by the mobile communications industry on both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite the assurances contained in its annual report, the share price of Vodafone, which has become a leading global player in mobile telephones after acquiring a string of rival operators, was hit by new research published in June suggesting that radio frequency (RF) fields generated by mobile telephones could harm the brain. Although one expert involved in the...

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