CONSUMER
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Boundary Fares: the boundaries of fairness
In Boundary Fares [2025] CAT 64 the Tribunal dismissed Mr Gutmann’s claims that rail companies had abused their dominant positions by failing to make boundary fares sufficiently available or promote awareness of them. The decision contains important analysis about the overlap of consumer and competition law, but the reasoning is nuanced and it does not… Continue reading
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Beware of the CAT
Has the CAT turned full circle in its approach to collective proceedings orders (CPOs)? The short history of the CPO regime starts with the unsuccessful first application back in 2017 followed shortly afterwards by the Supreme Court’s very applicant-friendly 2020 decision in Merricks v Mastercard (see our blog here). But a growing number of decisions… Continue reading
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Collective Actions in the Supreme Court
The big news from today’s UK Supreme Court collective action decision in Mastercard v Merricks [2020] UKSC 51 is not only that Mr Merricks won and defeated the appeal, but that the Supreme Court approached the issues in a far more claimant-friendly way than even the Court of Appeal had done. The headlines are that,… Continue reading
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Collective (in)action? The CAT’s recent judgments on collective proceedings orders
At first glance, two recent judgments from the CAT may give the impression that the new UK class action regime is dead in the water. However, on closer inspection there is much in these judgments that prospective claimants will welcome. The first decision was in the Pride mobility scooters case (see Tom Coates’ blog here).… Continue reading
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Collective Proceedings in the CAT: mobility scooters roll on for now
Last Friday the CAT handed down a judgment on the first ever-application for a collective proceedings order under the new regime introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The judgment will generally be welcomed by potential claimants, but it has a sting in the tail which may cause serious difficulties for class actions in other… Continue reading
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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
