UK Private Enforcement1
Mondaq Business Briefing › United Kingdom Law Articles in English (2009)
Linked as:
Extract
UK Private Enforcement1
Originally Published by Global Competition Review
The private enforcement of competition law has been one of the most dynamic areas of law in the UK over the past few years. This has in large part been due to a number of changes to procedural rules in the UK designed to facilitate private enforcement of the competition rules. These legislative changes provide a framework around which a body of case law has begun to develop. There has been a steady increase in the number of antitrust claims lodged before the English courts. A substantial proportion of cases have been settled prior to trial which, while reducing the number of published judgments, suggests that defendants increasingly recognise the likelihood of their being found liable to pay substantial damages.2 All of these developments take place against a background of intense policy debate at the European level, most notably the Commission's Green and White Papers on damages actions.3 The UK regime includes a number of specific provisions for competition law claims, most notably the specialist Competition Appeal Tribunal. Save for these rules, private actions in relation to competition law are subject to the regime applicable to other civil commercial actions, the cause of action for competition claims being the tort of breach of statutory duty.4 Below we set out the most important features of the current regime in the UK, before undertaking a review of the most recent case law. The Competition Act 1998 The Competition Act 1998 introduced two new competition prohibitions into the UK regime, which mirror articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty, namely a prohibition against anti-competitive agreements (the Chapter I prohibition) and a prohibition against an abuse of a dominant position (the Chapter II prohibition). Both prohibitions require there to be an effect on trade within the UK. The Enterprise Act 2002 The Enterprise Act 2002 amended the Competition Act 1998 substantially. The principal changes designed to facilitate private antitrust actions were as follows: The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) was created.5 The CAT is a specialist judicial body that has jurisdiction to hear actions for damages and other monetary claims under the Competition Act 1998.6 Cases are heard before a panel consisting of three members: e...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
