HORIZONS
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Expert Evidence in the CAT: The New Landscape
The CAT’s new Practice Direction on Expert Evidence provides very helpful guidance on what the CAT expects of experts. It covers a wide range of topics including how experts should work with each other and the Tribunal. However, two aspects of the new guidance are likely to have a particularly significant practical impact. In short, Continue reading
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Kent v Apple: Collective actions and the future of platform competition
The Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision in Kent v Apple is an important landmark in the approach of UK courts to competition within tech ecosystems, showing how traditional tools can be used to police digital walled gardens. The decision is also very timely. Just as the government is considering whether recent high-profile disappointments in the collective Continue reading
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Regulating Big Tech in the UK
Following hot(ish) on the heels of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (“the Bill”) was published on 25 April 2023. It seeks to do three things: (1) to establish a new ex-ante regulatory regime for digital markets, conferring powers on the CMA, via its Digital Markets Unit, to Continue reading
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The Trouble with Economists
The Competition Appeal Tribunal’s recent decision in the trucks cartel claim raises some serious questions about expert economic evidence. In this post I want to flesh out some of the challenges and then float some suggestions for improvements. The context Many readers will know the basic background. Back in 2016, the European Commission decided that Continue reading
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Economic complexity: CAT vs High Court
One of the advantages of the Competition Appeal Tribunal is said to be the fact that its three-member panel typically includes an economist. But is that really such a big advantage over the High Court? The question is particularly topical in light of a couple of recent trends. On the one hand, recent legislative developments have Continue reading
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FIFPro challenge the football transfer system
By Nick De Marco & Dr Alex Mills As the curtains are drawn on the panic-buying of the January transfer window for another year, it is once again difficult not to reflect critically on the football transfer system. In the Premier League alone, more than £1bn has been spent on football transfers during the 2015-16 Continue reading
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Eligibility for sporting competitions caught in the cross-hairs of competition law
In a recent announcement, the European Commission got its skates on and launched an investigation into the rules of the International Skating Union (ISU) which preclude skaters from taking part in events which have not been approved by the ISU. The announcement is only preliminary and does not represent a statement of what may or Continue reading
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Avoiding the clinch: judicial respect for the rules inherent to sport
In a recent bout in the High Court, the specificity of sporting disputes once again came to the fore. In Bruce Baker v British Boxing Board of Control [2014] EWHC 2074 (QB), 25 June 2014, Sir David Eady was faced with the old chestnut of a request for a court to interfere with a national Continue reading
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The economics of margin squeeze
The Competition Bulletin is pleased to welcome the second in our series of blogs by Oxera Consulting on key economic concepts for competition lawyers. In this blog, Tuomas Haanperä, a Senior Consultant, discusses the economic issues surrounding follow-on damages claims in margin squeeze cases (where a dominant firm has charged a combination of retail and Continue reading
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UK government proposes “streamlining” regulatory and competition appeals
The UK government on Wednesday published a consultation on streamlining regulatory and competition appeals. The press spin was that the proposals are all about preventing “armies of lawyers” from blocking consumer-friendly measures. In reality, although it is true that the proposals are designed in part to put a lid on litigation, the consultation contains a Continue reading
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Multi-speed Europe and the unitary patent: taking the first steps
A landmark recent judgment of the Grand Chamber of the CJEU was the first occasion on which the CJEU has considered the validity of a decision authorising enhanced cooperation. This is particularly topical given the flurry of initiatives relying upon this mechanism, some of which are now being challenged (such as the UK’s proposed proceedings Continue reading
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Competition law and the National Health Service
On 16 August 2012 the Office of Fair Trading revealed that eight NHS trusts had been engaged in the exchange of commercially sensitive information. The information related to the price each would charge self-paying patients, or patients’ insurers, for treatment in a hospital operated by an NHS trust when that treatment was privately funded. The Continue reading
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OFT welcomes DBIS proposals for reforms in private enforcement of competition law
Many readers will now be familiar with the proposals for the reform of private competition claims launched by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (‘DBIS’) in April 2012 (‘Private actions in competition law: A consultation on options for reform’). Published at the end of July 2012 when most people had better things to do, the Continue reading
