Yay good old DWP riding ruff shot over all comers inc the Court of Appeal. Stolen absolutely shamelessly from Rightsnet (lovely bunch of lads n lasses they will not mind)!

How far are companies allowed to change their terms and conditions of a contract without informing their customers that a change has taken place – and are they allowed to do this retrospectively? I am asking as my fiancé and I both have mobile phone contracts with Orange – taken out in August 2011 and September 2012 respectively, on terms and conditions which included a clause that could be used to stop customers cancelling their contracts (without fee) if Orange put up their prices, providing this increase was less than a certain measure of inflation. The issue I have is that in the original Ts&Cs this clause was very likely faulty and unenforceable as it referred to a government agency that has not existed since 1996 and to a document that no government agency has published since September 2011. It appears that Orange updated their Ts&Cs for policies taken out after October 31st 2012 – with a replacement clause giving a broader range of measures and bodies that they can rely on to justify their price increases. However, they also appear to have altered their Ts&Cs for contracts taken out between February 2011 and October 2012 to include the new clause, and the original February 2011 Ts&Cs have been removed from their site - luckily though, I have a copy of the original. Orange were not able to tell me when this change took place (although the altered Ts&Cs on their site are dated October 2012). They were also unable to tell me what steps they had taken to inform their customers of this change – and in a phone call to their call centre I have been told categorically that they have not told anyone of any updates to their terms. We have no record (on my bills or in any other correspondence) of being informed of these changes to the terms of our contracts – so do not accept that we are bound by the new terms. Are Orange allowed to change the wording of their terms without telling anyone that they have done so? Is it legal that they can just quietly alter the documents on their site and back-date the changes? This change in wording is significant as they are now relying on the new clause to increase the monthly cost for hundreds of thousands of customers who might reasonably have grounds to cancel their contracts - they have refused me the right to cancel mine without a hefty cancellation fee. Thanks in advance for any advice. The old wording of the clause (February 2011): 4.3.1 we have increased the Charges by an amount equal to or less than the percentage increase in the All Items Index of Retail Prices published by the Central Statistical Office in the Monthly Digest of Statistics in any 12 month period;” The new wording (October 2012 – backdated secretly to February 2011): “4.3.1 we give you written notice to increase the Charges (as a percentage) by an amount equal to or less than the percentage increase in the All Items Index of Retail Prices or any other statistical measure of inflation published by any government body authorised to publish measures of inflation from time to time, and published on a date as close as reasonably possible before the date on which we send you written notice; “