Representing the Respondent airline in successfully resisting the Appellants’ appeal from the decision of the Chancellor reported at [2010] Ch. 48. The Court of Appeal upheld the Chancellor’s order striking out the purported representative aspect of the Claimants’ claim on behalf of all direct or indirect purchasers of airfreight services worldwide the prices of which were allegedly inflated by an unlawful cartel allegedly involving the Respondent airline. This is the first case to reach the Court of Appeal in which the Court’s jurisdiction under CPR 19.6 has been considered in connection with a claim for damages allegedly sustained by a worldwide class of claimants as a result of an unlawful cartel in breach of EU Competition Rules. The Court ruled that the representative claim could not be sustained on the basis that the purported class did not have the ‘same interest’ within the meaning of the rule. In particular, the Court identified potential conflicts arising out of possible pass-on defences to damages claims as reinforcing the conclusion that the purported class did not have the same interest.
Kenneth MacLean QC represented the Respondent and was instructed by Slaughter & May.
Download the full text of the judgment.