Fierce Competition Podcast | Letter From London: The Rise of UK Class Actions and the Competition Appeal Tribunal
The United Kingdom remains a key European jurisdiction for competition damages actions, also in a post-Brexit world. In particular the number of collective proceedings for competition damages has significantly increased. This...more
UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 Makes Significant Changes to Competition and Consumer Protection Law - On 24 May 2024, the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) became...more
For the first time in two decades, the UK Court of Appeal has ruled on the substantive standard of judicial review to be applied by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT or Tribunal) in UK merger cases....more
On 22 April 2024, the UK High Court handed down its judgment that the Competition Appeal Tribunal had erred in law when it previously refused to grant the Competition & Markets Authority a warrant to search a domestic...more
The English High Court has issued a landmark judgment confirming the ability of the UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") to conduct raids of private residential premises when investigating suspected cartels....more
The UK High Court has ruled against the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) in a case about the power of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) to search domestic premises when investigating suspected anti-competitive...more
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) recently issued its first-ever precertification ruling addressing a “carriage dispute” in the cases Hunter v. Amazon.com and Hammond v. Amazon.com. A carriage dispute arises where...more
As we have explored in our Class Actions series, the popularity of mass claims in the English courts continues to grow. Such claims represent a substantial threat to financial institutions but, at the same time, we are also...more
This episode of our “Fierce Competition“ podcast looks at trends across the pond in class actions in the U.K. and focuses on the country’s new tribunal that was created specifically to hear class actions....more
In the first certification decision since the UK Supreme Court’s judgment in PACCAR, the CAT has held that a litigation funding agreement (LFA) revised in light of PACCAR was not a damages-based agreement (DBA) and it was...more
The question of how to resolve mass torts is one that occupies the minds of all modern commercial litigators. Whether those mass torts involve personal injury or the mis-selling of financial products, resolution is a subject...more
Generally, claims in the UK (including class actions) can be settled without court approval. Settlement is particularly important in competition damages claims, given the complexity, uncertainty and cost of litigating these...more
EU General Court Confirms Geo-Blocking Illegally Partitions the Single Market - On 27 September 2023, the EU’s second highest court, General Court or GC, upheld a 2021 European Commission decision that geo-blocking...more
On January 18, 2022, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, one of the world’s most-valuable gaming companies, was announced. In April 2023, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the deal on...more
Recently the English Court of Appeal (CoA) in Evans v Barclays & Ors1 overturned a decision of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), allowing a follow-on damages claim against various international banks to proceed on an...more
The Supreme Court’s decision in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) (Appellants) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 28 has caused a stir in the legal industry, leaving a number of...more
In the recent case of R (PACCAR Inc & ors.) v Competition Appeal Tribunal & ors [2023] UKSC 28, the UK Supreme Court found that litigation funding agreements (“LFAs”) involve the provision of “claim management services”,...more
On 26 July 2023, the UK Supreme Court handed down a judgment that will cause serious disruption (at least in the short term) to the litigation funding market. In R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition...more
To bring a collective competition action in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”), a proposed class representative first has to have their claim certified by the CAT. The CAT’s approach to certification is therefore an...more
The Competition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment in Royal Mail and BT’s claim against DAF Trucks has provided welcome clarity on how the legal test for pass on should be applied. It provides helpful guidance on the factors that a...more
Trucks, trucks, trucks – unless you’ve been living under a rock in the antitrust world, you’ve probably heard about, or even worked on, one of the many follow-on litigation claims related to the Commission’s 2016 cartel...more
Costs matter - in collective proceedings, where costs can be staggeringly high at the certification stage alone, costs allocation can be an important factor influencing parties’ litigation conduct. However, costs...more
In the run-up to the TLS in-person event (The Future of EU & UK Competition Regulation), there was heightened chatter about the long-anticipated yet unreleased Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers (DMCC) Bill. A mere...more
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has handed down a judgment determining several preliminary issues in the £17 billion collective action brought against Mastercard in relation to anti-competitive multilateral interchange fees,...more
It has long been a mystery to economists, accountants and business people why lawyers have regard to simple interest in commercial cases, in circumstances where companies generally do not (and cannot) borrow money on a simple...more