The North West’s Water Provider United Utilities was one of six Water Companies who have defeated mass lawsuits for allegedly under-reporting sewage discharges and overcharging millions of customers.
The Companies had been accused of misleading industry regulator Ofwat about the number of pollution incidents, which meant they were able to charge higher prices to customers.
However they argued that the cases should be thrown out at a hearing last September.The industry body Water UK said in a statement: “This highly speculative claim is entirely without merit. The regulator has confirmed that over 99% of sewage works comply with their legal requirements.@
The Competition Appeal Tribunal said in a written ruling on Friday that the cases were excluded by the effect of the Water Industry Act 1991, but that they would have approved the cases otherwise.
