Competition and Monopolies in UK Law

Mr Carr submits that in many other EU countries those circumstances are regarded as unfair competition. He is probably right about some EU countries, though my general understanding (I could not give chapter and verse) is that in some countries there has been a “rowing back” on what amounts to “unfair competition”. But even if such circumstances amount to unfair competition in some countries, it is surely clear that the concept of “unfair advantage” is an autonomous EU concept.

A second difficulty is that the members of the represented class do not have the same interest in recovering damages for breach of competition law if a defence is available in answer to the claims of some of them, but not to the claims of others: for example, if BA could successfully run a particular defence against those who had passed on the inflated price, but not against others.

A contract in restraint of trade is one in which a party (the covenanter) agrees with any other party (the covenantee) to restrict his liberty in the future to carry on trade with other persons not parties to the contract in such manner as he chooses.

Openness requires that the terms should be expressed fully, clearly and legibly, containing no concealed pitfalls or traps. Fair dealing requires that a supplier should not, whether deliberately or unconsciously, take advantage of the consumer's necessity, indigence, lack of experience, unfamiliarity with the subject matter of the contract, weak bargaining position or any other factor listed in or analogous to those listed in Schedule 2 of the regulations.

Second, that where the claim involves damages arising out of infringements of competition law by cartels which by their nature are clandestine and the court is considering an application by an alleged participant in the cartel to strike out a claim prior to disclosure and evidence, the court will tend to allow a more generous ambit for pleadings, where what is being alleged is necessarily a matter which is largely within the exclusive knowledge of defendants, than it might in other cases.

The right to bring a follow-on claim before the Tribunal does not affect the right of a party to bring the sort of proceedings in court that were already possible, so a party which considers itself to have been the victim of anti-competitive behaviour, and to have suffered loss as a result, has a choice: it may bring ordinary proceedings in the High Court (I speak only of England, even though the 1998 Act applies throughout the UK), or, if a relevant regulator has held there to have been an infringement, it may bring proceedings in the Tribunal.

I do not agree that, so far as concerns the proper approach under section 32(1)(b), competition claims are to be treated in principle in any different way to other claims. There are many areas of the law where a cause of action is dependent not simply on the primary facts but rather on whether those primary facts give rise to a particular consequence or inference.