The UK Government launches consultation implementing alternative remedies to reform private actions in competition law

Breaking the deadlock? Private antitrust enforcement in the UK* Private antitrust enforcement in the UK has never got off the ground, even after the Competition Act of 1998 introduced enforceable antitrust provisions. Plaintiffs have not been able to secure a final judgment awarding damages for anticompetitive conduct, and very few injunctions based on competition law have been successful before UK courts. The consumer organisation Which? brought the only consumer group action joining fewer than 0.1 percent of the affected consumers and before settling the case with JJB Sports. An attempt by Emerald Supplies to establish a representative action under the existing Civil Procedure Rules failed. Against this background of unsuccessful private enforcement, the UK Department for Business