The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal approves the first application for a collective proceedings order under the competition class action regime (Merricks / Mastercard)

On 18 August 2021 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) approved the first application for a collective proceedings order (CPO) under the UK’s competition class action regime introduced in 2015, in Walter Hugh Merricks CBE v Mastercard Incorporated and Others. The application was initially turned down by the CAT in 2017 but was remitted to it following a series of appeals, to be reconsidered against the principles set out by the Supreme Court in its ruling of 11 December 2020. It has taken several years for the competition class action regime to get off the ground, but there are now a further 12 CPO applications before the CAT, several of which were recently heard and are awaiting certification decisions over the coming months. In a win for MasterCard the CAT however refused Merricks