Expanded Horizons for Mass Claims in the UK
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Key takeaways:
- Recent decisions of the courts and tribunals of England and Wales have grappled with the growing phenomenon of mass claimant actions.
- On 18 August 2021, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the “CAT”) handed down its decision in Walter Hugh Merricks CBE v Mastercard Incorporated and Others [2021] CAT 28 (“Merricks v Mastercard”), and authorised the first application for a collective proceedings order (CPO) since the competition class action regime was introduced in 2015. The proceedings, brought by a class of over 46 million claimants, will now go forward as the largest mass claim ever brought in the United Kingdom.
- There are presently 12 further applications before the CAT awaiting authorisation decisions. As the trend for mass claims in the UK will likely continue to accelerate, both in the competition space and more broadly, understanding the evolving framework for these claims will be key to managing risk.