Claim for damages brought by French Connection (London) Limited and a number of other claimants, listed in the Schedule of Claimants (set out below), in respect of alleged infringements of Articles 101 and/or 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning ("TFEU") of the European Union and/or Articles 53 and/or 54 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area and/or Chapters I and/or II of the Competition Act 1998.
The claim is made against (1) Visa Europe Limited; (2) Visa Europe Services LLC; and (3) Visa UK Limited ("Visa").
The proceedings, in addition to 19 other actions, were transferred from the High Court to the Tribunal by order of the Honourable Mrs Justice Cockerill dated 20 March 2019.
On 9 October 2020, Visa filed an application for an Article 267 TFEU reference to the Court Justice of the European Union. The hearing of this application took place on 1 December 2020.The application was dismissed with reasons to follow. The Tribunal’s ruling of 22 December 2020 sets out the reasons for that decision ([2020] CAT 26).
A joint case management conference in Cases 1306(T)-1325(T), 1349(T) and 1350(T) took place on 2 February 2021.
A hearing to consider the Claimants' summary judgment application in Cases 1306(T)-1325(T), 1349(T), 1350(T), 1383(T) and 1384(T) took place on 12-14 May 2021.
On 26 November 2021 the Tribunal issued its judgment on the Claimants' summary judgment application ([2021] CAT 35).
A joint case management conference in Cases 1306(T)-1325(T), 1349(T)-1350(T), 1369(T), 1373(T)-1374(T), 1376(T), 1383(T)-1384(T), 1385(T)-1400(T) and 1406(T) took place on 1-2 March 2022 where the Tribunal gave directions regarding the future case management of the interchange fee cases. On 16 March 2022 the Tribunal issued its ruling providing reasons for a change in approach and setting out a process to identify the issues requiring determination ([2022] CAT 14).
A joint hearing took place on 23 and 24 May 2022 in Cases 1306(T)-1325(T), 1349(T)-1350(T), 1373(T)-1374(T), 1376(T), 1383(T)-1384(T), 1385(T)-1390(T), 1392(T)-1400(T) and 1406(T) to consider issues relating to pass on.
On 4 July 2022, the President made an Order designating this case as a “Host Case” pursuant to Practice Direction 2/2022 (Umbrella Proceedings). Ubiquitous Matters (as defined in the Practice Direction) arising in this case will be disposed of in Umbrella Proceedings (also defined in the Practice Direction) listed under Case 1517/11/7/22 (UM): Merchant Interchange Fee Umbrella Proceedings.
