Judgment of the Tribunal regarding revised applications for collective proceedings orders (“CPOs”) under s.47B of the Competition Act 1998 (“CA 1998”) by two Proposed Class Representatives, Commercial and Interregional Card Claims I Limited and Commercial and Interregional Card Claims II Limited (“CICC I” and “CICC II” respectively or, together, “the PCRs”) to combine standalone claims for damages caused by the Proposed Defendants’ alleged breaches of statutory duty in infringing Chapter I of CA 1998 and/or Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by reason of the way in which commercial card multilateral interchange fees have been set in the Proposed Defendants’ respective card schemes.
The judgment follows CAT [2023] 38, in which the Tribunal stayed the PCR's original CPO applications and granted the PCRs a further period to present revised proposals for the proposed collective proceedings.
For the reasons given in the judgment, the Tribunal unanimously intends to grant the applications based on an adjusted class definition. The PCRs are required to issue fresh Publicity Notices which include the adjusted class definition and give a period of three weeks for any person who wishes to make representations to do so. At the end of that period, subject to any representations which cause the Tribunal to reconsider, it will make formal orders to grant the CPOs.
