[co-author: Eleanor Winn, Elspeth Aylett]
In a reasoned order in January 2025, the Court of Appeal refused DAF Trucks permission to appeal against certification in the Trucks collective proceedings, deferring to the discretion of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in respect of a procedural decision made to address a previously identified conflict of interest between two sub-classes of claimants.
Background
In June 2022, the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") held that the application by the Road Haulage Association (“RHA”) for a collective proceeding order (“CPO”) for a follow-on damages claim should be granted. The claim was based on the European Commission’s July 2016 decision in which a number of European truck manufacturers were fined for anti-competitive activity.
The defendants to RHA's claim (and a competing class representative, UK Trucks Claim Limited) brought an appeal in respect of the CAT’s decision. The appeal was unsuccessful, but the Court of Appeal did identify that there was an unresolved issue in relation to a conflict of interest between two categories of claimants being incorrectly represented as one class by RHA. The Court of Appeal suggested that the claimants should be separated into two sub-classes and the issue was referred back to the CAT to resolve.
CAT management and further appeal
To resolve the conflict, RHA remained the representative of purchasers of new trucks, and RHA Used Trucks Limited ("RUTL") was established to represent the purchasers of used trucks. Each of the two sub-classes have separate legal counsel, and although both are funded by the same litigation funder, this is managed through separate funding arrangements by separate teams subject to an information barrier. The CAT considered the arrangements to be adequate to address the conflict and made a CPO in favour of RHA/RUTL on this basis.
One of the defendants, DAF Trucks, applied for permission to appeal the CAT’s CPO decision. In its January decision, the Court of Appeal rejected DAF's application stating that "this was a pragmatic case management decision by the CAT well within its discretion". As the CPO has been upheld, the RHA/RUTL collective action can now proceed.
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