Competition Appeal Tribunal sets procedure for construction appeals

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has decided that it will hear all appeals against the OFT’s decision in the construction investigation separately.

On 21 September 2009, following a five year investigation into the construction industry, the OFT imposed financial penalties totalling £129.2 million on 103 construction companies for having engaged in cover pricing.   Twenty five of those companies have appealed to the Tribunal.  Six of them have appealed both liability and penalty.  The remainder have appealed in relation to penalty only.

The Tribunal is faced with the largest set of appeals that it has ever had to manage.  It considered at a hearing early this week (and following written submissions from all parties to the appeals) “how to manage the appeals effectively, and by reference to what timetable”.

The Tribunal decided that “in order to ensure that the appeals can be disposed of fairly and within a reasonable time, ensuring that proper attention is paid to each of the cases”, each case will need to be heard separately.  The Tribunal will set up three panels to hear the cases in June and July of this year.

Members of Monckton Chambers are acting for a number of the appellants and for the OFT.

• Paul Lasok QC and Josh Holmes (instructed by DLA Piper UK) for ISG Pearce Limited.
• John Swift QC and Kassie Smith (instructed by Pinsent Masons) for Galliford Try Plc.
• Christopher Vajda QC and Ronit Kreisberger (instructed by CMS Cameron Mckenna) for Ballast Nedam NV.
• David Unterhalter SC, Daniel Beard and Alan Bates (instructed by the General Counsel, Office of Fair Trading) for the Office of Fair Trading.
• George Peretz (instructed by DLA Piper UK) for Renew Holdings Plc, Allenbuild Limited, Robert Woodhead (Holdings) Limited and Robert Woodhead Limited.
• Paul Harris (instructed by Nabarro) for Corringway Conclusions plc.

Please click below for more information on:
Paul Lasok QC
John Swift QC
David Unterhalter SC
Paul Harris QC
Daniel Beard QC
Kassie Smith QC
George Peretz
Josh Holmes
Alan Bates