Le Patourel v BT: Regulatory findings and expert evidence in class actions

In this video, Kyle Le Croy and Richard Whish KC discuss Le Patourel v BT – notable as the first substantive judgment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in a UK opt-out collective action for competition law damages. This includes discussion of the background to the claim and the relevance of previous provisional regulatory findings by Ofcom as evidence regarding whether BT’s prices were abusive for the applicable landline telephone services. The video also discusses the role of certification as well as key questions and expert evidence the CAT considered in its substantive judgment. 

BT’s prices needed to be excessive and unfair to amount to an abuse of a dominant position in breach of the Chapter II prohibition under the Competition Act 1998. The CAT found that BT’s prices were excessive (albeit less so than had been claimed), but ultimately dismissed the claim after concluding there was no abuse because BT’s prices were not unfair.