On 1 October 2015, the UK introduced a collective action regime (i.e. a class action regime) for competition law, which allows classes of victims to claim losses suffered as a result of breaches of competition law. The regime was introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA”) and claims are brought in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the “Tribunal”).

Any such damages action “must be commenced by a person who proposes to be the representative in those proceedings”. The Tribunal then decides whether to authorise the person to represent the class and make a collective proceedings order (“CPO”) to allow the claim to go forward as a collective action. The Tribunal will only issue a CPO if it is persuaded that the proposed class representative meets the various requirements of the Competition Act1998, the Competition Appeal Tribunal Rules 2015 (the “2015 Rules”), and the guidance in the Competition Appeal Tribunal Guide to Proceedings 2015 (the “2015 Guide”).

The profile of the class representative The class representative does not have to be a member of the class, and does not even need to be a natural person. It can be a company, either a pre-existing one such as an industry association, or one formed specially to bring the claim