Competing class actions—who wins carriage?

• Looks at approach to competing claims in Australia, Canada and the US.
• Considers what approach the UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal might take.

Competing claims are a common feature of class action regimes. When faced with overlapping class actions against the same defendant, courts will typically allow only one action to proceed. Which means they must resolve so-called carriage disputes, unless the parties to competing actions can find a satisfactory way to collaborate.

The UK’s class action regime is relatively new and its overseer, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), is yet to resolve a carriage dispute. The CAT has, instead, been preoccupied with certification, having so far refused to grant any action with clearance to launch.

The wait for the CAT’s first positive certification decision should now be short, following a recent decision by the Supreme Court that the CAT must lower its threshold. And, in what could be a bumper harvest