Judgment of the Settlement Tribunal approving a joint application by the Class Representative and the Second Defendant in Case 1304/7/7/19, Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited (“SSWT”) (together, “Settling Parties”), for a Collective Settlement Approval Order (“CSAO”).
The CSAO application was made in the context of collective proceedings combining standalone claims under section 47A of the Competition Act 1998 (“CA 1998”) for damages for alleged losses caused by the Defendants’ alleged abuse of an alleged dominant position in the relevant passenger rail service market in breach of section 18 of the CA 1998. It is claimed that SSWT (along with the other Defendants) did not make so-called ‘boundary fares’ or ‘extension tickets’ sufficiently available for purchase for travel on its services and/or failed to use its best endeavours to ensure that there was a general awareness among its customers of boundary fares, so as to enable customers to buy an appropriate fare in order to avoid being charged twice for part of a journey. This was alleged to have resulted in class members being double-charged for part of the service provided to them.
In advance of and during the hearing of the CSAO application, the Tribunal expressed concerns about the proposed settlement and whether its terms were just and reasonable. In light of the Tribunal’s concerns, the Settling Parties decided to modify the proposed settlement (the “Modified Proposed Settlement”).
The Tribunal announced its decision at the CSAO application hearing that it would approve the Modified Settlement Proposal. This judgment sets out the reasons for that decision.
