They’re massive, big money, headline-grabbing and share-price rocking—and possibly coming to a court near you! At least, that’s if the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) continues on its current path of greenlighting opt-out collective proceedings.
In this week’s NLJ, Cameron Laing, associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK, examines the increasing number of applications for opt-out collective proceedings orders (CPO) on which the CAT has been adjudicating, and notes that, on the whole, the tribunal has tended to grant such applications.
Considering the CAT's approach to strike-out and summary dismissal of these claims, he writes: 'Its hesitance to exercise its discretion in these areas in CPO claims to date demonstrates that, post-Merricks, it is a very high threshold that a defendant needs to meet for a CPO claim to be struck out.’
He also looks, in particular, at how the CAT’s assessment of the merits of claims has worked in practice.
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