competition law blog
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Down the rabbit-hole: costs, the Comms Act and the Competition Commission
‘“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here”.’ Where an appeal to the Tribunal under section 192 of the Communications Act 2003 gives rise to specified ‘price control matters’, the CAT must hive them off for determination by the Competition… Continue reading
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Flip Flopping: Telefonica UK v Office of Communications
What should Ofcom do when mobile network operators (“MNOs”) spot a loophole in the regulator’s price control mechanism and proceed to “game” the system over several years, increasing their revenues by many millions of pounds? This unsuccessful appeal before the Competition Appeal Tribunal was brought by Telefonica, the only MNO that had failed to exploit… Continue reading
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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
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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
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Special pleading? Toshiba Carrier and the industrial tubes cartel
The Court of Appeal’s judgment last Friday in KME Yorkshire Ltd & ors v Toshiba Carrier UK Ltd & ors [2012] EWCA Civ 1990 will gladden the hearts of Article 101 damages claimants. It confirms that the Court will be generous in assessing the adequacy of a claimant’s pleaded case – at least where a… Continue reading
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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
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This blog is produced by a group of barristers at Blackstone Chambers and is edited by Tristan Jones, Tom Coates and Flora Robertson.
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COMPETITION BULLETIN 