Dr Rachael Kent is a King’s College London academic and a leading voice on the impact of digital technology on health. She is a digital health consultant, author, and podcast host, and her recent work addresses the spread of health misinformation and broader digital harms on social media. She is also Co-Director of the Centre for Technology and the Body at the King’s Digital Futures Institute.

 

She recently won a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the technology giant Apple. Representing 36 million UK consumers, the case found that Apple had abused its dominant position through its App Store practices, including charging commission rates of up to 30%. The ruling paves the way for £1.5 billion in compensation to be returned to UK consumers and businesses, and sets an important precedent for challenging monopolistic practices in digital markets.

 

Alongside her academic work, she is the founder of Dr Digital Health, through which she advises businesses, the NHS, government, and policymakers on the harms of digital technology and strategies to support healthier digital habits. She also hosts Digital Health Diagnosed: Your Dose of Tech Wellbeing, an evidence-based podcast on technology and health, featured on ITV News. Her research is regularly featured in the media, including BBC News, Forbes, Metro UK, The Daily Mail, and The Independent.

 

Dr. Rachael Kent v Apple Inc. and Apple Distribution International Ltd

She is the first female class representative in UK legal history. In 2025, her collective action against Apple—brought on behalf of 19.6 million UK consumers and valued at £1.5bn—went to trial, becoming the first trial against a tech giant in UK legal history. 

 

 On 23 October 2025, the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled in Dr Kent’s favour, finding that Apple had abused its dominant position in relation to the commission it charged on App Store purchases and determining that the class is entitled to damages currently estimated at approximately £1.5 billion. Further information is available via the Competition Appeal Tribunal and recent press interviews.

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Apple’s subsequent applications for permission to appeal are ongoing, with a rolled-up hearing before the Court of Appeal expected to take place between November 2026 and March 2027. Further information is available via the Competition Appeal Tribunal and Dr Kent’s recent press interviews.​​

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Dr. Digital Health

Dr. Kent founded Dr. Digital Health in 2020, which provides cutting-edge research into evidence-based strategy and training that helps organisations and their people understand how digital technology affects mental and physical health, reduce digital saturation, and address ‘addictive’ patterns -—building healthier, more sustainable tech habits across work and life. Clients include the NHS, the UK Government, Vivo Barefoot, Paramount, and CBS.

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Press

Her research and expert commentary regularly feature across BBC News, ITV News, The Times, The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Forbes, The Daily Mail, Metro, The Conversation, Stylist, Glamour, Dazed, Marie Claire, Runner’s World and Mixmag, among others. Recent coverage has included The Times’ article, I hate my £349-a-year Whoop tracker. It’s a hypochondriac exploring the potential psychological impact of wearable health tracking, expert commentary for Full Fact’s When Power Meets the Wellness Algorithm: Why We Mistake Virality for Truth, as well as recent radio appearances on the BBC network speaking on “Loudcasting” with BBC Radio 4. See more features with Dr Kent here.

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Podcast

Dr Kent hosts Digital Health Diagnosed: Your Dose of Tech Wellbeing (produced by Playtime Productions), the first evidence-based podcast to diagnose how technology impacts health and offer practical tools for healthier digital living; it was recently featured on ITV News at 6pm.​​

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Book

Her first book, The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Self-Tracking, and Social Media (Bristol University Press, 2023), provides an analysis of 15 years of research into the tech that shapes our every day life.