Summary of appeal published on 7 July 2016. On 22 July 2016 the President made an order extending the deadline for Ofcom to serve its defence until further order.
Mr Justice Snowden chaired a Case Management Conference (“CMC”) for Cases 1259/3/3/16 (“TalkTalk’s Appeal”), 1260/3/3/16 (“BT’s Appeal”) and 1261/3/3/16 (“CityFibre’s Appeal”) on 29 September 2016. At the CMC Mr Justice Snowden made an Order setting down further directions for the three appeals, including that the main hearing of BT’s Appeal should provisionally listed to take place, together with CityFibre’s Appeal, in a window commencing in April 2017. Mr Justice Snowden also made two further Orders establishing a confidentiality ring for TalkTalk’s Appeal (the “Case 1259 Confidentiality Ring”) and a separate confidentiality ring for BT and CityFibre’s Appeals (the “Cases 1260-1261 Confidentiality Ring”). At the CMC Mr Justice Snowden also gave a ruling refusing Vtesse Harlow Limited permission to intervene in TalkTalk’s Appeal ([2016] CAT 17) and a further ruling on the terms of the confidentiality rings in all three appeals ([2016] CAT 18).
On 10 November 2016 Mr Justice Snowden made an Order granting the Appellant permission to amend its Notice of Appeal.
A second CMC for BT and CityFibre’s Appeals took place on 23 January 2017 at which the Chairman made an Order setting down further directions to the hearing.
A pre-trial review took place on 29 March 2017. Mr Justice Snowden made an Order granting various applications to adduce further evidence.
The hearing took place in 16 sitting days between 10 April 2017 and 24 May 2017. On 26 July 2017 the Tribunal handed down a short ruling setting out its findings ([2017] CAT 17).
On 6 September 2017 Mr Justice Snowden made a reasoned order ([2017] CAT 20) granting permission to CityFibre to amend its Statement of Intervention in BT’s Appeal and dismissing an application made by the CP Group interveners for certain costs connected with that amendment.
On 10 November 2017 the Tribunal handed down its judgment ([2017] CAT 25) setting out its reasons for its ruling of 26 July 2017. On that date the Tribunal published a provisional non-confidential version of the judgment with the contents of Section F(5) redacted. The finalised non-confidential version of the judgment was published on 8 December 2017.
On 20 November 2017 a hearing was held in private and Mr Justice Snowden made an Order giving effect to the Tribunal’s ruling of 26 July 2017 and made a ruling refusing to delay the making of that order ([2017] CAT 26). On 23 November 2017 the Tribunal released this ruling for publication.
On 4 December 2017 the Tribunal heard argument concerning costs in this appeal and CityFibre’s Appeal. On 25 January 2018 the Tribunal issued its ruling on costs ([2018] CAT 1).
On 9 March 2018 the Tribunal issued a ruling ([2018] CAT 6) granting Ofcom permission to appeal the Costs Ruling.
On 14 November 2018 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment (i) allowing Ofcom’s appeal against the Costs Ruling and (ii) remitting the matter of costs to the Tribunal for reconsideration ([2018] EWCA Civ 2542). BT subsequently withdrew its application for costs.
