BSkyB has lost its appeal at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in regard to the Competition Commission’s decision to force the broadcaster to reduce its shareholding in ITV to less than 7.5%.

In a report published last December, the Competition Commission concluded that Sky’s shareholding in ITV may be expected to give rise to a substantial lessening of competition, and recommended that Sky’s holding should be reduced to a level below 7.5%. The Secretary of State was responsible for the eventual decision on remedial action, but agreed with the Commission’s recommendation. BSkyB challenged the Commission’s conclusions on jurisdiction, competition and remedial action, and also challenged the Secretary of State’s decision on remedies.

The Tribunal also rejected an appeal by Virgin Media against the remedy imposed, but allowed Virgin Media’s appeal in relation to the interpretation of the media plurality regime.

Rupert Anderson QC and Elisa Holmes acted for the Secretary of State.

John Swift QC, Daniel Beard and Rob Williams were counsel for The Competition Commission.

For more information on the case, click here.

Please click below for more information on:
John Swift QC
Daniel Beard QC
Rob Williams
Elisa Holmes

The International Court of Appeal of the FIA has dismissed an appeal by Team McLaren Mercedes in which it sought to overturn a penalty imposed on Lewis Hamilton at the recent Belgian Spa Grand Prix. The appeal attracted considerable interest because, if it had succeeded, Mr. Hamilton would have gone into the forthcoming Singapore Grand Prix with a clear lead in the drivers’ championship.

After a day of argument before the Court in Paris, however, the appeal was declared inadmissible.

Paul Harris represented the FIA.

We are delighted to confirm that international and human rights law specialist Drew Holiner has joined Chambers as a new tenant.

Drew is unique to Monckton Chambers in that he is an English-Russian qualified barrister, who had a prolific litigation practice in Russia prior to obtaining pupillage in the UK.

The Lawyer published a full profile of Drew; click here for the article

Please click below for more information on:
Drew Holiner

Case C-288/07 Isle of Wight District Council and others v Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

Local authorities acting as public authorities are outside the scope of VAT unless not to tax their activities “would lead to significant distortions of competition” with private sector operators. Off street car parking in the UK is provided both by local authorities and private companies. In this context HMRC considered that the “competition” test was satisfied and that Local Authorities were subject to VAT in providing off street car parking. The correct interpretation of the competition test raised a series of legal questions that were ultimately referred by the Chancery Division to the ECJ for clarification.

Before the VAT Tribunal HMRC contended that an “activities” approach should be adopted. In other words, whether there was an effect on competition should be assessed on a broad brush basis across the UK rather than on a local authority by local authority basis. They further argued that “significant” meant more than “de minimis” and that “would lead to” included an assessment of potential competition, of which there only needed to be a possibility. Those arguments did not find favour with the Tribunal. HMRC appealed to the Chancery Division (Rimer J.) who decided to stay the case and make a reference on the issues raised by HMRC’s arguments.

In its Judgment the ECJ concluded that the activities approach was the correct approach, that future competition was relevant provided it was a real possibility, and that “significant” meant more than “egligible”.

HMRC were represented by Christopher Vajda QC, Paul Harris and Ben Rayment.

Please click below for more information on:
Paul Harris QC
Ben Rayment

 

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has allowed an appeal by Vodafone against Ofcom’s decision to change the system of number portability: Vodafone v Ofcom [2008] CAT 22. Number portability is the process which enables a subscriber to a fixed or mobile network to retain their telephone number when they change network operator. Ofcom’s decision proposed technical changes to the mechanism by which portability takes place and a speeding up of the process of portability in the case of mobile numbers. The Tribunal held that the cost benefit analysis conducted by Ofcom in support of its decision could not withstand the “profound and rigorous scrutiny” of the Tribunal on “an appeal on the merits” pursuant to s.195 of the Communications Act 2008. It has remitted the matter to Ofcom for reconsideration.

Tim Ward acted for Vodafone

Alan Bates acted for Ofcom, whilst Meredith Pickford  and acted for T-mobile.

Please click below for more information on:
Tim Ward QC
Meredith Pickford
Alan Bates

Michael Bowsher QC successfully represented McLaughlin and Harvey Ltd this week in the High Court of Northern Ireland. The firm had been excluded from bidding for government contracts, put at £800m.

For details of this story, click here.

Please click below for more information on:
Michael Bowsher QC

The Legal 500 2008 UK edition was published on 9 September and for the sixth year running lists Monckton Chambers as one of the leading sets at the London Bar.

In addition to this accolade, we are also delighted to see that our individual recommendations have gone up by a further 12% to a total of 43.

 

The shortlists for these prestigious awards are now online and we are pleased to feature four times in the listings.

Chambers is particularly well represented this year in the Competition and EU category, where we are listed not only for ‘Set of the Year’, but have also scooped two of the three ‘Junior of the Year’ nominations for Daniel Beard and Meredith Pickford. Our fourth nomination is for ‘Set of the Year’ for Tax.

The results will be announced at The Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, on 25 September 2007.

We are delighted to confirm that competition and mergers specialist Alistair Lindsay will be joining Chambers as a tenant next year.

Alistair, who originally started his legal career with Monckton Chambers as a pupil, has decided to rejoin our set, citing our thriving competition practice and the work-life balance opportunities moving to the Bar will bring as the main reasons for his decision to leave his current firm. Senior Clerk David Hockney welcomes the move: “It shows that, as a set, we’re able to attract stellar lawyers within competition circles to complement Chambers.”

Alistair will take up tenancy in September 2009.

More coverage appeared in The Lawyer today, for the full article, please click here.

Please click here for more information on Alistair Lindsay.

The Lawyer’s UK Annual Report revealed Monckton Chambers as a new entry at number 29 this morning.

We are delighted to be listed in the annual countdown, which is worked out primarily by turnover. Our growth over the last financial year was covered in The Lawyer in July and it is our dramatic 26% increase which has returned Chambers to the rankings.

We are also proud to be recognised as the top ranking Chambers for appearances in the ECJ, with twenty-one in the last year, and as eighth in the tables for appearances in the House of Lords, with nine.