We have written before about the problems inherent in the transitional provisions of the new Consumer Rights Act 2015 (see Tom de la Mare QC’s blog here). A recent decision from Mr Justice Barling in the Mastercard litigation places a (small) sticking plaster over some of the difficulties.
One problem is that the transitional provisions appear to severely limit claimants’ ability to bring stand-alone claims in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) – in theory you can bring such claims, but you may face much less favourable limitation rules than you would have faced had you started in the High Court. It is difficult to see this as anything other than a drafting error, since part of the purpose of the new statutory regime was to do away with the oddity of having a specialist competition tribunal unable to hear such claims.
Barling J has found a partial solution to this problem. In Sainsbury Supermarkets Ltd v MasterCard Incorporated [2015] EWHC 3472 (Ch) (see here), he decided that Sainsbury’s standalone claim, issued in the High Court, could be transferred to the CAT – and that, importantly, such a transfer would preserve the limitation position in the High Court.
The Judge held that it did not matter whether or not the claim could have been started in the CAT (and he did not decide that particular issue). What mattered was that it could be transferred there.
The ability to transfer standalone claims to the CAT has obvious advantages for those cases which would benefit from the CAT’s economic and industry expertise. It is somewhat clunky for claimants to have to issue in the High Court (and incur fees there) only to then transfer to the CAT, but it is better than nothing.
It also means that claimants who wish to take advantage of the different limitation provisions in the High Court (in general, better for standalone claims) and in the CAT (in general, better for follow-on) now have the option of starting claims in both jurisdictions and then seeking to consolidate them in the CAT.
Of course, Barling J’s decision does nothing to fix the other problems highlighted in Tom’s blog. Most obviously, it does nothing for standalone class actions, which cannot be started in the High Court and still face the usual problems in the CAT. It is, however, a helpful ‘workaround’ which will go some way towards mitigating the problems caused by the transitional arrangements.
Competition Bulletin 