LONDON, 2ND JUNE 2023. In a huge boost to the hopes of millions of UK consumers who stand to gain from a Woodsford-funded collective action against five large shipping companies who engaged in an anticompetitive cartel, the UK Supreme Court announced yesterday that it had refused to allow a further appeal against certification of the collective action to proceed.

In 2018, the European Commission (EC) fined the international shipping companies a total of EUR 395 million for their participation in a cartel between 18 October 2006 and 6 September 2012.

The EC found that the companies fixed prices, rigged bids and allocated the market for roll-on, roll-off (“RoRo”) transport of vehicles into Europe. According to the EC, the companies had agreed to maintain the status quo in the market and to respect each other’s ongoing business on certain routes, or with certain customers, by quoting artificially high prices or not quoting at all in tenders for vehicle manufacturers.