Milbank LLP’s London Litigation and Arbitration team has written the UK chapter for the 15thedition of The Private Competition Enforcement Review, published by The Law Reviews.
Julian Stait (co-managing partner of the London office and head of the London Litigation and Arbitration team), William Charles (partner), Cormac Alexander (special counsel), Emma Hogwood (special counsel) and Mark Padley (associate) set out the legislative framework for private antitrust enforcement in the UK. The comprehensive chapter covers a range of considerations, from extraterritoriality and privileges, through to the various mechanisms for collective redress in England and Wales.
An extract from the chapter reads:
"The start of 2021 marked the end of the Brexit transition period and the beginning of a period in which European Union law no longer applies in the UK. Although this is likely to have a significant impact in the future, the decisions of the European Commission continued to drive much of the private antitrust litigation in the English courts and the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in 2021. … The end of 2020 also brought the Supreme Court’s decision in the opt-out class action commenced by Walter Merricks against Mastercard. … Looking forward, we believe that the number of class actions is likely to grow, and the law will continue to evolve, as the CAT grapples with novel issues raised by a class actions regime that is still very much in its infancy. In particular, the developments described in Section VII [which discusses class actions] are likely to encourage claimant law firms and litigation funders to file collective proceedings, facilitating claims that may otherwise not have been possible on an individual basis. However, the regime needs to operate fairly, and a lower threshold risks unmeritorious claims being brought opportunistically (as the two dissenting Supreme Court judges in Merricks warned, the approach taken by the majority may 'very significantly diminish the role and utility of the certification safeguard').”
