News In Brief
In Charles Ciumei and Paul Bury’s recent article, “A more open competition” (NLJ, 16 May 2008, p 691) it was mentioned that claimant law firm Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll (CMHT) commenced a £270m follow on litigation on behalf of dairy consumers after an OFT investigation which found that supermarkets and dairy processors colluded to fix the prices of products, which was subsequently dropped. In fact, such an action was never started; the possibility was simply explored by CMHT and later discounted as a result of difficulties in finding a funder interested in taking it forward. In addition, the figure of £270m was the OFT’s estimate of the damage caused, and not CMHT’s assessment of the value of a potential claim. The same article states that, in the British Airways/Virgin fuel surcharge case, the settlement is in relation to trans-Atlantic flights, when it actually applies to all long haul flights. Critically, it applies to all UK and US purchasers with separate funds allocated to each—the UK fund amounting to £73.5m.
