No direct right of appeal from competition issues transferred to the Competition Appeal Tribunal

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that there is no statutory right of appeal from the CAT where competition issues are transferred to it

The case concerned proceedings brought by Agents' Mutual Limited against Gascoigne Halman Limited. The competition issues were transferred to the CAT by the High Court, under the Section 16 Enterprise Act 2002 Regulations 2015. The contractual issues remained with the High Court. 

The CAT found that the rules governing access to Agents' Mutual’s property portal did not breach the Chapter I prohibition.

Gascoigne Halman applied for permission to appeal against the CAT's judgment. The CAT ruled that the competition issues in this case were analogous to determination of a preliminary issue.  The CAT accepted that there could be a right of appeal from the CAT on determination of such issues, for example if they arose in proceedings for competition law damages under sections 47A and 49 of the Competition Act 1998.  However, the CAT did not consider that the wording of those sections was apt to cover the situation in this case where the competition issues were transferred to the CAT in the context of a breach of contract claim.

Therefore, the application had to be treated as an application to the High Court under CPR 52.3 for permission to appeal the order of the High Court giving effect to the CAT’s determination.

Case 1262/5/7/16 (T) - Agents' Mutual Ltd v Gascoigne Halman Ltd (t/a Gascoigne Halman), ruling (application permission to appeal) [2017] CAT 22