Court of Appeal hands down seminal collective proceedings judgments in the Trucks and Forex proceedings

The Court of Appeal has recently handed down two seminal judgments in the Trucks and Forex proceedings:

• UK Trucks Claim Limited v Stellantis NV (formerly Fiat Chrylser Automobiles NV) & Others and Traton SE & Others v Road Haulage Association Limited [2023] EWCA Civ 875 (Trucks); and
• Mr Phillip Gwyn James Evans v Barclays Bank Plc & Ors and Michael O’Higgins FX Class Representative Limited v Barclays Bank PLC & Ors [2023] EWCA Civ 876 (Forex).

The judgments will be of particular interest to financial institutions following developments in the class actions space, as the decisions are likely to have a significant impact on the collective proceedings regime in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Notably, the judgments assist in clarifying: (i) the test for determining whether collective proceedings should be certified on an opt-in or opt-out basis; (ii) the test for determining carriage (that is, where multiple proposed class representatives seek to take “carriage” of the same or similar claims) and how the carriage process should be conducted; and (iii) how to resolve potential conflicts of interest within the class. The judgments also contain a number of other important statements (some of which are obiter) which may have implications for the collective proceedings regime.

For more information, please see this post on our Competition Notes blog.

Note: In November 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment, in which it concluded that it did have jurisdiction to make or amend an CPO and that it should make an order that provides for a wider remittal to the CAT to take into account (if appropriate) the implications of the decision in PACCAR.