RHA remains class representative for Trucks CPO, subject to setting up sub-classes

28/07/23

The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment on appeals against a decision of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, in which the Tribunal granted an application made by the Road Haulage Association (the “RHA”) in 2018 for an opt-in collective proceedings order permitting claims following on from the European Commission’s Trucks infringement decision, and dismissed a parallel application by UK Trucks Claim Ltd (“UKTC”). The judgment raises important issues on conflicts of interest within a proposed class and the criteria for selecting class representatives.

The Court of Appeal refused to disturb the Tribunal’s decision that the RHA should be the only class representative (and dismissed UKTC’s contention that it rather than the RHA should have been certified to act as class representative).  It ordered that the RHA proceedings be remitted to the Tribunal to give directions in accordance with the judgment to address a conflict of interest within the RHA’s class, including as to the establishment of sub-classes. The UKTC application is stayed pending the resolution of those issues by the Tribunal.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal also gives guidance on the scope of the Court of Appeal’s jurisdiction in relation to decisions of the Tribunal on certification. The Court held that the Tribunal’s decision was a decision “as to the award of damages” for the purposes of section 49(1A) of the Competition Act 1998, such that challenge to that decision lay by way of appeal rather than judicial review.

The judgment can be found here.