In this edition of Competitive Edge, the Addleshaw Goddard competition team considers one of the most eagerly anticipated judgments ever to be handed down by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
In a judgment published yesterday, the CAT required MasterCard to pay £68.6m in damages to Sainsbury's. This was the first cartel damages action to be litigated through to judgment in the UK and, as such, provides the first fully reasoned example of how the CAT will analyse such claims. From a precedent perspective, its treatment of concepts like the "counterfactual", "overcharge" and "passing-on" are of particular interest. The CAT also strongly criticised the EC's "merchant indifference test", declaring it "wholly unfit for purpose".
Rona Bar-Isaac
Partner, Head of Competition, Co-Head of Retail & Consumer Sector
London, UK
