Court of Appeal Refuses Permission to Appeal against the Trucks CPO

28/01/25

By a strongly-worded reasoned order of the Chancellor, the Court of Appeal today refused PACCAR/DAF’s application for permission to appeal against the CAT’s order certifying the Trucks collective proceedings.

The proceedings are brought on behalf of buyers and lessees of new and used trucks by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and Road Haulage Association Used Trucks Ltd (RUTL).  The claims are made against various trucks manufacturers, arising from the trucks cartel, which was the subject of the European Commission’s 19 July 2016 Decision in Case 39824 – Trucks.

The procedural history of the Trucks collective proceedings is as follows. In June 2022, the Tribunal determined a carriage dispute for the proceedings, between the RHA and UK Trucks Claim Ltd (UKTC). The RHA, which proposed to bring opt-in proceedings, prevailed ([2022] CAT 25). UKTC appealed, and in July 2023, the Court of Appeal dismissed that appeal. In the same judgment ([2023] EWCA Civ 875), the Court of Appeal held that, in the RHA proceedings, a conflict of interest arose on the issue of pass-on between new-trucks claimants and used-trucks claimants. It held that that conflict could be managed by making arrangements for used-trucks claimants to be separately represented, with separate funding arrangements and a separate expert, all of which arrangements would have to be the subject of further consideration by the Tribunal.

Following hearings in June and July 2024, and by a Judgment of August 2024 ([2024] CAT 51), the CAT granted the CPO sought by the RHA and RUTL, dismissing a range of further defendant objections to the arrangements put in place in response to the Court of Appeal’s 2023 judgment.

PACCAR/DAF’s attempt to appeal against the Tribunal’s CPO having now been refused, the RHA/RUTL collective action can proceed.

The Court of Appeal’s Reasoned Order is here.