We are delighted that our overview of collective damages claims in competition cases in the UK has been published as part of the third edition of Global Competition Review's Guide to Private Litigation.
The Guide includes contributions from leading practitioners, exploring in depth the key themes raised in competition litigation across the globe. We are proud to have once again contributed the chapter covering the UK, which draws on our expertise in conducting complex private antitrust litigation matters before the UK courts and providing expert strategic advice on private enforcement risks. You can access a PDF copy of the chapter here. The rest of the Guide is available on the GCR website here.
Our chapter considers the latest trends in collective or class actions and claims aggregation in the UK, and highlights some of the key issues that have arisen in recent cases. We focus in particular on the specific opt-out collective actions regime before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), looking at the types of cases in which CPOs have been sought, and the approach taken in the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Merricks v Mastercard, that has now clarified important aspects of the legal framework governing CPO applications and resulted in the first certification by the CAT of a CPO. The ruling has unlocked a number of potential claims that had been stayed pending the Supreme Court's judgment and a further three CPOs have since been certified (see our blog post here on two applications by Justin Gutmann now approved by the CAT).
The chapter also covers trends and key issues arising in claims brought by multiple claimants via other routes available to claimants seeking to bring collective actions in the UK, namely representative actions, group litigation orders, informal claims aggregation and joint case management before both the High Court and the CAT. Finally, we also briefly touch on the issue of settlement, which has its own dynamics in the context of collective claims, whichever of the procedural routes is originally followed when bringing the claim.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
