The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) of the United Kingdom was created by Section 12 and Schedule 2 to the Enterprise Act 2002 which came into force on 1 April 2003. The Competition Service is an executive non-departmental public body which was created as a support body for the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Functions

The current functions of the CAT are: * To hear appeals on the merits in respect of decisions made under the

Competition Act The ''Competition Act'' () is a Canadian federal law governing competition in Canada. The Act contains both criminal and civil provisions aimed at preventing anti-competitive practices in the marketplace. Along with the ''Competition Tribunal ...

1998 by the

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair beh ...

(CMA) and the regulators in the telecommunications, electricity, gas,

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

, railways and air traffic services sectors. * To hear actions for damages and other monetary claims under the Competition Act 1998. * To review decisions made by the Secretary of State, CMA and the

Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

in respect of merger and market references or possible references under the Enterprise Act 2002. * To hear appeals against certain decisions made by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

and the Secretary of State relating to the exercise by Ofcom of its functions under Part 2 (networks, services and the radio spectrum) and sections 290 to 294 and Schedule 11 (networking arrangements for Channel 3) of the

Communications Act 2003 The Communications Act 2003 (c. 21) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act, which came into force on 25 July 2003, superseded the Telecommunications Act 1984. The new act was the responsibility of Culture Secretary Tessa ...

. * To hear appeals in respect of decisions made by the CMA under the EC Competition Law (Articles 84 and 85) Enforcement Regulations 2001 (as amended).

Cases

, the tribunal has addressed 623 cases to date. Examples include:

Construction bid-rigging

In 2011, a number of fines levied by the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

(OFT) on construction firms found to have engaged in illegal

bid-rigging Bid rigging is a fraudulent scheme in a procurement action which enables companies to submit non-competitive bids. It can be performed by corrupt officials, by firms in an orchestrated act of collusion, or by officials and firms acting together. ...

schemes were deemed to be "excessive" and the Tribunal revised the values of the fines. The tribunal decided that the OFT had used turnover figures for the wrong year when calculating fines, and treated the bid-rigging as more serious than it should have done, although in some other respects the OFT's ruling was upheld.

Construction cartel

In December 2020 the tribunal upheld a decision of the

(CMA) on an appeal from Northern Ireland building firm FP McCann Ltd., who along with other companies had participated in an illegal

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

Online hotel booking

In March 2014, the price-comparison site,

Skyscanner Skyscanner Ltd. is a British search aggregator and travel agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland and operating since 2002. History The company was formed by three information technology professionals. The Edinburgh office was opened in 2004. In ...

, brought a case to the Tribunal, challenging a January 2014 decision by the Office of Fair Trading to settle a probe over pricing of hotel rooms sold online. The OFT's decision had been to accept commitments from a number of online travel agents and

InterContinental Hotels Group InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Windsor, Berkshire, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. It ...

(IHG). Skyscanner appealed against the OFT's successor, the Competition and Markets Authority, because it believed its business would be affected by the settlement, even though it was not targeted by the investigation. Skyscanner's case was supported by a smaller online travel agent, Skoosh, which had triggered the OFT's original investigation. In a judgment handed down in September 2014, the Competition Appeal Tribunal quashed the Office of Fair Trading's decision to accept commitments in the online hotel booking sector and the matter was reverted to the CMA for reconsideration.

References

External links

* {{authority control United Kingdom tribunals Competition regulators 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom Consumer organisations in the United Kingdom category:Department for Business and Trade