Costs, funding and collective actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal

Table of contents

• What are opt-out claims and why are they big business?
• Why are costs arrangements relevant?
• How are claimants funded?
• What about adverse costs and ATE insurance?
• What do I need to be particularly alert to?

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: Enormous damages claims, a single professional client and rich defendants have made collective proceeding actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) a honeypot for entrepreneurial lawyers. Costs are a massively important aspect to these claims. Litigation funding is regularly called on to keep the case going for claimants while for defendants the unique regime in the CAT means a fight over costs can stop ‘bet the company’ claims dead in their tracks. Indeed the CAT itself has a duty to ensure that the involvement of a funder does not override the best interests of the class and it often investigates the funding relationship. In this analysis, Imran Benson, barrister at Hailsham Chambers, considers the costs and funding issues which arise in this mega—and ever more popular, form of litigation.