Ryanair Holdings plc v Office of Fair Trading and another [2012] EWCA Civ 643, [2012] All ER (D) 168 (May)
Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Sir Andrew Morritt, Hughes and McFarlane LJJ, 22 May 2012
The court considered the interaction between the merger jurisdiction exercisable by the European Commission (the Commission) under Council Regulation (EC) 139/2004 (ECMR) and the similar jurisdiction exercisable by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission under the Enterprise Act 2002 (EA 2002).
Lord Pannick QC and Brian Kennelly (instructed by Covington & Burling LLP) for the claimant. Daniel Beard QC and Julian Gregory (instructed by the General Counsel, OFT) for the OFT. James Flynn QC, Kelyn Bacon and Daniel Piccinin (instructed by Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and Linklaters LLP) for Aer Lingus.
The claimant was an airline operator. It acquired a large amount of the issued share capital of the second respondent (Aer Lingus). In 2006, the claimant had also made a bid to acquire the outstanding share capital of Aer Lingus and, pursuant to Art 4 of ECMR, had lodged a notification
