House of Lords hears evidence on EU Sanctions Regimes 6 February 2014 The House of Lords (Sub-Committee C – External Affairs) heard evidence today (Thursday 6 February 2014) on EU restrictive measures. A video of the evidence given to the Committee by Philip Moser QC of Monckton Chambers and Maya Lester is available here.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also gave evidence, but asked that its evidence be kept confidential in a closed session.
The OFT has today published its finalised Principles for online and app-based games.
In April 2013, the OFT announced the launch of an investigation into the ways in which online and app-based games encourage children to make purchases. It investigated whether there was general market compliance with consumer protection law, in particular the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. It explored whether online and app-based games included commercial practices that may be considered misleading, aggressive or otherwise unfair under that legislation.
The result is a set of principles that clarifies the OFT’s view of the obligations of operators in this dynamic new industry under consumer protection law. The principles can be found here.
Ben Rayment has been advising companies concerned by the OFT’s investigation on the correct application of the law in this sector.
On 28 January 2014 Mrs Justice Rose handed down judgment in Arriva The Shires Ltd -v- London Luton Airport Operations Limited [2014] EWHC 64 (Ch).
The decision, which follows a three-week hearing in the Chancery Division in October – November 2013, contains an extensive consideration of the law of abuse of dominance in the context of a claim by the claimant bus company that the defendant airport operator had abused its dominant position in awarding an exclusive concession to operate a service from the airport’s bus station to one of the claimant’s competitors.
The case had previously been the subject of an injunction hearing before Roth J in June 2013.
Paul Harris QC, Ben Rayment and Michael Armitage (instructed by Bond Dickinson LLP) appeared for the Claimant.
Tim Ward QC (instructed by King and Wood Malleson LLP) appeared for the Defendant.
Click here to read the judgment on arriva v luton airport.
The Supreme Court has dismissed appeals challenging the Government’s decision to proceed with a high speed rail link from London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester (HS2). Challenges to HS2 had been brought by 15 local authorities located along the route of HS2, HS2 Action Alliance (local residents’ groups opposing HS2) and Heathrow Hub. The Appellants argued that the Government’s decision failed to comply with the SEA Directive, and that to proceed in Parliament by way of the hybrid bill procedure breached EU environmental law (the EIA Directive). The Supreme Court rejected both of these grounds of appeal.
Kassie Smith QC appeared (with Nathalie Lieven QC) for the local authorities.
The case has been widely covered by the local and national press;
Click here to read judgment on HS2 v SoS for Transport
National Grid Electricity Transmission plc v ABB ltd & Ors, has been selected as one of the top 20 cases to watch this year by The Lawyer.
Jon Turner QC, Daniel Beard QC and Laura Elizabeth John are instructed by Berwin Leighton Paisner for the claimant National Grid.
This major cartel damages case will consider a number of precedent-setting issues, including how to calculate cartel ‘overcharges’ in antitrust damages claims.
The cases, selected by over 100 leading litigators, barristers and senior clerks represent the most significant cases for 2014 in terms of developing the law.
Producers organisations (POs) – national organisations of producers of particular agricultural products – are an important aspect of the CAP and receive significant amounts of European funding. Over the last few years, there has been a considerable amount of litigation as to the extent to which POs must retain day-to-day control of functions that they choose to outsource, marketing. In a reference from the High Court decided today by the European Court of Justice (Case C-500/11, Fruition PO), the ECJ agreed with the approach taken by the UK authorities when it held that POs must, when they outsource functions, remain vigilant to ensure that effective performance of those functions is guaranteed, and that they retain the ability to take “timely and peremptory” action. It was not enough to show that in practice the PO and the entity carrying out the outsourced function operated on the basis of consensus.
George Peretz represented the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the High Court and the United Kingdom in the ECJ.
Click to read the full judgment in Fruition Po Ltd v Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food and Animal Health,
The Chambers 100 UK Bar, a ranking of the UK’s top 100 Barristers has been published today, featuring 4 members of Monckton Chambers.
Congratulations to Jon Turner QC, Daniel Beard QC, Josh Holmes & Meredith Pickford who all appear in the list.
The Chambers 100: UK Bar is drawn from those barristers ranked in the top bands of Chambers UK Bar. To read the full list please click here.
In its long awaited ruling on the Eurotunnel case, the Competition Appeal Tribunal has delivered a wide-ranging judgment dealing with almost the whole of the legal framework within which the Competition Commission considers mergers.
Two aspects of the judgment are of particular importance. First, the judgment gives detailed consideration to the concept of an “enterprise”, and how that concept is to be distinguished from an asset purchase. Secondly, and of even greater importance, the Tribunal considered whether the Commission’s procedures, and its management of confidential information, require modification in light of recent decisions of the Supreme Court on closed procedures and the approach taken in EU law (the principle of “access to the file”).
In summary, the Tribunal quashed the CC’s finding that it had jurisdiction to consider the transaction and remitted that question to the CC. However, the Tribunal rejected the wide ranging criticisms of the CC’s procedures and found that there was no breach of natural justice in the particular case.
The Tribunal also rejected grounds of review concerned with the CC’s assessment of competitive effects and remedies.
Alistair Lindsay appeared for Groupe Eurotunnel S.A.
Daniel Beard QC and Rob Williams appeared for the Société Coopérative de Production Sea France S.A.
Paul Harris QC, Ben Rayment and Thomas Sebastian appeared for the Competition Commission.
Meredith Pickford appeared for and Ligia Osepciu acted for DFDS A/S.
Click here to read our Eurotunnel Case Note.
The High Court (Burnley District Registry) has granted summary judgment on claims brought against NHS East Lancashire under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006, judging them to have been brought out of time. The judge carefully analysed the information provided to the Claimant as part of a (voluntary) debrief process, and found that the information underpinning the claim had been provided more 30 days before the claim was issued. The subsequent provision of a redacted copy of the winning bid under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 did not save the claim from being out of time.
The judge commented on the “harsh reality” of the time limits which apply under Regulations, at the same time noting that the Defendant had gone beyond its obligations to provide the Claimant with information about the procurement process.
In the course of its judgment, the Court also ruled that expert evidence was not admissible in support of the claims, applying the ruling of Coulson J in BY Development.
Rob Williams acted for the successful Defendant, instructed by Hempsons.
Click to view the SSP Health v NHS judgment.
The European Commission announced today that it is fining seven banks and one broker for their involvement in cartels manipulating short term interest rate benchmarks in Euro (EURIBOR) and Japanese Yen (JPY LIBOR and TIBOR) to which trillions of USD of loans and derivatives are linked. The total fines issued amount to €1.7bn with Deutsche Bank facing the largest penalty of about €725m.
The EURIBOR cartel operated between September 2005 and May 2008. The cartel aimed at distorting the normal course of pricing components for the derivative products which were linked to EURIBOR. Traders of different banks discussed their bank’s submissions for the calculation of EURIBOR, as well as their trading and pricing strategies. Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS and Soc Gen all reached settlement with the Commission. Barclays also benefitted from immunity under the Commission’s leniency regime. The Commission’s investigation continues against Credit Agricole, HSBC and JP Morgan.
The JPY and LIBOR infringements took place between 2007 and 2010. The collusion included discussions between traders of the participating banks on certain JPY LIBOR submissions. The traders involved also exchanged, on occasions, commercially sensitive information relating either to trading positions or to future JPY LIBOR submissions (and in one of the infringements relating to certain future submissions for the Euroyen TIBOR – Tokyo interbank offered rate). The banks involved in one or more of the infringements are UBS, RBS, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and JPMorgan. The broker RP Martin facilitated one of the infringements by using its contacts with a number of JPY LIBOR panel banks that did not participate in the infringement, with the aim of influencing their JPY LIBOR submissions. The five aforementioned banks and the broker all agreed to settle the case with the Commission. The investigation continues against the cash broker ICAP.
The Commission’s press release can be found at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1208_en.htm.
Kassie Smith QC is acting in Guardian Care Homes v Barclays, a misselling and competition law claim in the UK courts arising from the LIBOR scandal. She is also advising in a number of other potential damages actions.
