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ARTICLE · 25 SEPTEMBER 2025

Class Actions Radar: United Kingdom – Competition

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
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The UK has a separate regime for collective claims based on infringements of competition law, which are heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Kim Dietzel
Kim Dietzel
Natalia Rodriguez
Natalia Rodriguez
Stephen Wisking
Stephen Wisking
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
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The landscape

The UK has a separate regime for collective claims based on infringements of competition law, which are heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

Its scope was significantly expanded in 2015. Claims can be brought by a Class Representative on behalf of consumer or business claimants, seeking aggregate damages on either an opt-in or opt-out basis. Claims may be "follow-on", based on an existing decision by a competition regulator finding a competition law breach, or "standalone", without any underlying infringement decision. 

The landmark Supreme Court judgment in Merricks v Mastercard in December 2020 gave this avenue considerable momentum by setting a very low bar for certification of claims by the CAT (certification being the initial procedural hurdle before the claim can proceed to trial). Since then, there has been a significant increase in claims filed (30 have been filed in the last three years alone, compared to just 9 in the five-year

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