As reported in previous Client Alerts, there has recently been a flurry of Collective Proceedings Orders (“CPOs”) in collective (class) actions for competition/antitrust claims (as introduced in the UK by an amendment to the Competition Act 1998 (the “Act”) in 2015), following the UK Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in Merricks v Mastercard.
On 6 May 2022, the Court of Appeal (“CoA”) handed down judgment in Patourel v BT Group (the “CoA Judgment”). This appeal considered a judgment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) of 27 September 2021, the second CPO to be made in the UK (the “CAT Judgment”), that the proceedings should be opt-out, rather that opt-in, proceedings.
In this article, we look at the CoA’s decision, the first in which an appeal court has considered the approach to determining whether collective proceedings should proceed on an opt-out or opt-in basis as part of the UK’s nascent collective action regime.
Click here to read the full insight: 'UK Class Actions: Opt-in or Opt-out?.'
