Competition

The Court of Appeal allowed the claimants’ appeal against refusal of their judicial review challenge of two decisions made by the defendant’s predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). There had been a plain breach of the principle of equal treatment and fairness in the OFT’s decisions to have given, and acted upon, assurances to another company that, if it entered into an early resolution agreement, it would receive the benefit of any successful appeal by other companies being investigated without itself having to appeal. That unequal treatment had not been objectively justified.