Fierce Competition Podcast | Letter From London: The Rise of UK Class Actions and the Competition Appeal Tribunal
The UK government has launched a review into the opt-out collective actions regime for antitrust law claims. This review comes a decade after the regime’s launch. During this period, the regime has developed significantly,...more
Over the past decade, changes in legislation, case law, and industry practices have driven a sharp increase in opt-out collective proceedings before the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”). We have also seen the English...more
The graphic below tracks the number of competition class actions (CPO applications) filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) since the introduction of a new 'opt-out' regime in the UK in October 2015, as well as the...more
On 1 August 2025, the Court of Appeal handed down its landmark judgment in Le Patourel v BT1 refusing the class representative permission to appeal the Competition Appeal Tribunal's ("CAT") dismissal of the opt-out class...more
The Football Governance Act was passed into law on 21 July 2025. This follows a long period of debate amongst legislators, regulators, clubs, fans and other market stakeholders about the future of English football, in...more
We’re halfway through 2025 and there’s plenty to talk about when it comes to competition litigation. In this edition of UK Competition Litigation Quarterly, our lawyers highlight five significant developments from the past...more
It’s been a busy start to 2025 at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, with several key cases and procedural updates shaping the landscape of UK competition litigation. In this edition of UK Competition Litigation Quarterly, our...more
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...more
In its 19 December 2024 judgment, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) unanimously rejected Mr Le Patourel’s excessive pricing claim against BT. This was the UK’s first opt-out collective action to proceed to trial, and will...more
In a long-awaited judgment handed down on 19 December 2024, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) unanimously dismissed the claim brought by Justin Le Patourel against BT Group Plc (“Le Patourel v BT”). As the first UK...more
The U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has imposed its own fines on Pfizer and Flynn Pharma for abusing their dominant positions by charging excessive and unfair prices for phenytoin sodium, an anti-epilepsy drug, after...more
For our Cooley colleagues in the US, defending class actions against technology platforms has been a part of their day-to-day for many years. However, the need for class action defence lawyers is spreading rapidly to the UK...more
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