COMPETITION BULLETIN

independent views on markets, regulation and fairness


Author: Tristan Jones KC

  • Collective Actions: loss in complex cases

    The big news from last week’s UK announcement on reforming private competition enforcement is that the government plans to introduce opt-out class actions for competition claims. The proposals incorporate various “safeguards” designed to ensure that the perceived excesses of US class actions do not become a problem here. Some of the safeguards are really no… Continue reading

  • Competition round-up: January 2013

    As today is the first day of the new court term, I thought it would be a good moment for a round-up of last term’s competition cases – and, of course, the customary plug of our own blogs. If there was a theme to the Michaelmas term, it was the highs and lows of follow-on… Continue reading

  • Tesco scores partial victory in cheese cartel

    In a judgment handed down this afternoon, the Competition Appeal Tribunal largely upheld Tesco’s appeal against the OFT’s decision that it had participated in unlawful agreements relating to the price of cheese: see Tesco Stores Ltd v Office of Fair Trading [2012] CAT 31. Tesco’s victory is essentially on the facts: it persuaded the CAT… Continue reading

  • BCL No.2: The Supreme Court addresses time limits in follow-on claims

    The White Paper which first proposed follow-on damages claims promised a “swift” and “streamlined” procedure. The idea was that when a regulator had made an infringement finding, there would be a simple way for victims to claim damages without having to prove the infringement afresh. In reality, however, many follow-on actions have been bogged down… Continue reading

  • Competition round-up: Summer 2012

    As most of us are now returned from our summer holidays, I thought I’d take advantage of the ‘back to school’ feeling with a round-up of the most significant competition cases since Easter. This also provides a good excuse to highlight the best blogs from the Competition Bulletin’s first couple of months. I’ll start with… Continue reading

  • Ex ante and ex post regulation following Telefónica

    Hats off to Spain for having the nerve to suggest that it might have been a better target for the Commission’s attention than Telefónica, the former monopoly telecoms provider recently fined over €150 million for committing a margin squeeze in the Spanish broadband market (see case T-398/07 Kingdom of Spain v Commission). The case is the… Continue reading