Our competition litigation team's overview of collective damages claims in competition cases in the UK has recently been published as part of Global Competition Review's new Guide to Private Litigation. The rest of the Guide is available for free to GCR subscribers here.
The HSF chapter considers the current 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. It focuses in particular on the specific opt-out collective actions regime before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), and the issues which have arisen in the two cases which have so far proceeded to a certification hearing: Pride v Gibson and Merricks v Mastercard. Although to date there have been no successful applications for a collective proceedings order, the sense of momentum behind the expanded regime is increasing. The Supreme Court's hotly anticipated judgment in Merricks v Mastercard later this year is expected to have a considerable bearing on where the balance lies between facilitating redress and avoiding the risk of unmeritorious class claims, and indeed on the future of collective proceedings in the CAT.
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.
