In the first UK case of its kind, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has awarded interim damages to a claimant in a competition damages action. Healthcare at Home was awarded £2million in relation to its damages action against Genzyme Limited on 15 November 2006.
The interim damages awarded do not include interest claimed by the defendant. As the award was for interim damages only, the final damages award could be higher.
Interim damages are available where the defendant has admitted liability to pay damages to the claimant and the CAT is satisfied that if the claim were to be heard, the claimant would obtain judgment for a substantial amount of money against the defendant.
This judgment demonstrates that litigation relating to breaches of competition law is becoming reality in the UK, particularly in cases where the authorities have previously made an infringement finding. With claimants obtaining redress, the need for competition law compliance becomes ever more pressing.
Healthcare at Home's case stems from the OFT's, and subsequently the CAT's, review of Genzyme's practices for distributing a drug for the treatment of Gaucher disease and for administering the drug to patients. The OFT imposed a fine of £6.8 million on Genzyme for abusing its dominance in the market for the supply of drugs for the treatment of Gaucher disease. The CAT later reduced this fine to £3 million on appeal, upholding some but not all of the OFT's findings. Healthcare at Home then brought an action in the CAT for damages stemming from the abuse. As part of this damages action, Healthcare at Home applied for interim damages on the basis that Genzyme had admitted in its defence that the CAT had found it had abused its dominant position. The CAT made its interim damages judgment as it was satisfied that Healthcare at Home would be able to obtain judgment against Genzyme for a substantial amount of money at an eventual trial of this case.
As part of its judgment, the CAT also considered issues including the period for which damages can be claimed and whether the case trial should be split to deal with liability separately from quantifying damages (the CAT decided not to split, particularly as the infringement had already been established).
For the CAT's judgment on interim damages, please click here. For the CAT's judgment on whether to split the trial, please click here.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 17/11/2006.
