Competition Appeal Tribunal
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) of the United Kingdom was created by Section 12 and Schedule 2 to the Enterprise Act 2002 which came into force on 1 April 2003. The Competition Service is an executive non-departmental public body which was created as a support body for the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Functions
The current functions of the CAT are:
- To hear appeals on the merits in respect of decisions made under the Competition Act 1998 by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the regulators in the telecommunications, electricity, gas, water, railways and air traffic services sectors.
- To hear actions for damages and other monetary claims under the Competition Act 1998.
- To review decisions made by the Secretary of State, OFT and the Competition Commission in respect of merger and market references or possible references under the Enterprise Act 2002.
- To hear appeals against certain decisions made by Ofcom and the Secretary of State relating to the exercise by Ofcom of its functions under Part 2 (networks, services and the radio spectrum) and sections 290 to 294 and Schedule 11 (networking arrangements for Channel 3) of the Communications Act 2003.
- To hear appeals in respect of decisions made by the OFT under the EC Competition Law (Articles 84 and 85) Enforcement Regulations 2001 (as amended).
Cases
Online Hotel Booking
In March 2014, the price comparison site Skyscanner brought a case to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) [1] challenging a January 2014 decision by the UK’s antitrust authority - then known as the Office of Fair Trading - to settle a probe over pricing of hotel rooms online. Skyscanner’s took the regulator to the higher court because it believed its business will be affected by the settlement, even though it wasn’t targeted by the investigation. Skyscanner's case is supported by a smaller online travel agent, Skoosh. The Office of Fair Trading's case, now the Competition and Market's Authority's case, is supported by Expedia, Booking.com and Intercontinental Hotels (IHG).