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The Swatch Group AG and two of its subsidiaries have successfully obtained the dismissal of proceedings brought against them in the High Court by the Claimant, a UK-based wholesaler of watch spare parts, which claimed that the refusal to supply it with spare parts for Swatch Group products breached EU and UK competition law. The English proceedings were brought following some years of litigation involving the same issues in Switzerland before the Bern Commercial Court and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which inter alia clarified the conditions under Swiss law for obtaining a negative declaration. After having established Swatch’s interest in a negative declaration and jurisdiction, the Swiss Courts rejected the claimant’s claims applying EU and UK law and granted Swatch a negative declaration in respect of the claimed infringements. Dismissing the English proceedings the Judge, Mr Justice Michael Green, held that the Swiss Courts’ judgments were entitled to recognition under the Lugano Convention and that Swatch was entitled to the declaration it sought that the issues raised by the claimant in the English proceedings were res judicata. The Lugano Convention continues to apply to cases started before the UK left the EU. The Judge considered he did not need to rule on the issue, but considered that the common law rules on recognition were broadly similar to those under the Lugano Convention. The Judge dismissed the claimant’s arguments that recognising the Swiss Courts’ judgments would be contrary to English public policy because it had not had a fair hearing in breach of Article 6(1) ECHR. He also dismissed an argument that s.60A of the Competition Act 1998, which enables a court applying UK competition law post-Brexit to depart from EU competition law in certain circumstances, provided any basis on which the Swiss Courts’ judgments should not be recognised. The Judge considered he did not need to rule on a further argument concerning whether a failure by Cousins to petition the European Court of Human Rights in respect of alleged failings by the courts of a signatory state to the ECHR meant that Cousins had failed to exhaust its remedies in Switzerland. On 30 July 2024 the Court of Appeal (Green LJ) refused an application for permission to appeal by the Claimant due to lack of merit and absence of any public interest. The High Court’s Judgment is accordingly now final.
A copy of the High Court’s Judgment can be found here
Ben Rayment was instructed by Addleshaw Goddard for Swatch.