''East India Company v Sandys'' (1684) 10 St Tr 371 is a

UK company law British company law regulates corporations formed under the Companies Act 2006. Also governed by the Insolvency Act 1986, the UK Corporate Governance Code, European Union Directive (European Union), Directives and court cases, the company is th ...

and

competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

case, concerning monopolies and the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

Facts

Thomas Sandys was an English merchant. Sandys traded in India, returning with a shipload of cloth which arrived in the English Channel in January 1682. When the ship sailed up the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

, officials of the

, which held a monopoly on trading in the East Indies, seized the ship and attempted to levy a fine. The case was heard in 1683.

Judgment

Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...

Lord Jeffreys held that the East India Company was entitled to levy the fine, citing the

Statute of Monopolies The Statute of Monopolies ( 21 Jas. 1. c. 3) was an act of the Parliament of England notable as the first statutory expression of English patent law. Patents evolved from letters patent, issued by the monarch to grant monopolies over particula ...

of 1624. He held that Sandys and the other interloping merchants had never been possession of the East India trade, and they had suffered no loss of freedom or restraint of liberty. He upheld the East India Company charter, and the royal prerogative over foreign trade.

Notes

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References

* United Kingdom company case law 17th-century English merchants

Facts

Judgment

See also

Notes

References