England’s Court of Appeal has decided that the Competition Appeals Tribunal (the “CAT”) erred in rejecting certification of former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks’ class action against MasterCard, for £14 billion. As a result, the CAT will now reconsider whether to certify the class. The decision has lowered the bar that will need to be cleared in this and future class actions in order to achieve certification. In this alert, we consider the decision and its implications for the UK’s fledgling class action regime.
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Competition Law
The ACM’s guidance to address competition law concerns for FinTech in the creation of technical standards
By Mike Nonaka & Sophie Bertin on
Introduction
On December 3, 2018, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (“ACM”) published a speech from its board member, Cateautje Hijmans van den Bergh, regarding potential competition law concerns in the financial technology (“FinTech”) sector.
In particular, further to the European Parliament’s study on FinTech and competition law (the “Study”) – as discussed in…
The European Parliament publishes a study on financial technology and competition law
On July 9, 2018, the Economic Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (the “EP”) published a study identifying potential competition law concerns in the financial technology (“FinTech”) sector (the “Study”).
This Study follows the Consumer Financial Services Action Plan launched by the European Commission in March 2017, which aimed to promote greater choice and better…
Is the heat on in the syndicated loans market? Spanish Competition Authority fines banks for price fixing on interest rate derivatives
By Sophie Bertin & Johan Ysewyn on
Posted in Competition Law, Derivatives
On 13 February 2018, the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission (“CNMC”) fined four major Spanish banks €91 million for colluding to fix the price of interest-rate derivatives (“IRDs”) attached to syndicated loans above market price. The decision is an additional indication that syndicated loans are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of competition authorities, after the European Commission last year commissioned a study on competition issues in this market that will be completed by the end of the year 2018.
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