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The Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) has today handed down judgment in the so-called Apple Batteries collective proceedings, refusing Apple’s (second) application to strike out the entirety of the claim.
The Class Representative, Mr Gutmann, had alleged that Apple abused its dominant position in the way in which it introduced a ‘Power Management Feature’ to address unexpected power offs which were causing iPhones to shut down unexpectedly, which in turn had the effect of throttling their performance. Mr Gutmann’s claim was certified by the CAT in late 2023, and had resisted Apple’s first strike out / summary judgment application and their subsequent application for permission to appeal.
Apple’s present application was based on the recent judgments of the Supreme Court in Evans v Barclays Bank and the CAT in Gutmann v First MTR Southwestern Trains Limited. The CAT unanimously rejected Apple’s submissions on the law and refused to strike out the claim. It did however take the opportunity to re-examine the matter afresh and considered that the claim should proceed with some adjustments in respect of new iPhones and the end of the alleged infringement period. Importantly, the CAT noted that it was arguable that a lack of transparency can be a factor – indeed “a dominant factor” – in the abuse of a dominant position.
The CAT’s judgment can be found here.
Philip Moser KC and Natalie Nguyen represented the successful Class Representative, Justin Gutmann, and were instructed by Charles Lyndon.
Anneli Howard KC, Stefan Kuppen and Will Perry also act for Mr Gutmann.