UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Samantha Ward, Ben Jasper, Oliver Carroll and Bethany Downey, Clifford Chance LLP
Clifford Chance LLP 10 Upper Bank Street
London E14 5JJ UK
Tel: +44 207 006 8546 Fax: +44 207 006 8546 Email: Samantha.Ward@cliffordchance.com Web: www.cliffordchance.com
1. Introduction 1.1 Current Framework for Private Antitrust Litigation England and Wales has been one of the leading juris - dictions for antitrust litigation in Europe for over 30 years. The combination of a well-regulated jurisdiction for commercial litigation, specialist competition judg - es and an expert tribunal (the Competition Appeal Tri - bunal or CAT), and wide-ranging disclosure has made the UK an attractive destination for antitrust damages claims. In addition, following the introduction of opt- out collective actions before the CAT in 2015 there has been substantial growth in those claims, although there has been a marked slowdown in applications in 2025. The legislative framework for assessing potential com - petition law infringements comprises the Competition Action 1998 (“CA 98”), as amended by the Enterprise Act 2002, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which introduced collective proceedings for claims seeking redress for breaches of competition law. The CA 98 sets out: (i) the Chapter I prohibition, which prohibits agreements that have as their object or effect the pre - vention, restriction or distortion of competition; and (ii) the Chapter II prohibition, which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position. Claims for damages may be brought for breach of statutory duty where the CA 98 Chapter I and Chap - ter II prohibitions have been infringed. These may be brought on a standalone or follow-on basis, and since the introduction of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the
CRA 2015), collective actions have been available in the CAT for follow-on and standalone antitrust dam - ages claims, Claims may be brought on an opt-in or opt-out basis. 1.2 Recent Developments Legislative Developments Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 On 1 January 2025, the Digital Markets, Competi - tion and Consumers Act 2024 came into force. This Act contains important amendments to the existing competition regime. In relation to private litigation in particular, Part 2 includes provisions to expand the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to include the ability to grant declaratory relief. Potential reform of the opt-out collective actions regime On 6 August 2025, the government announced a review of the operation and impact of the opt-out collective actions regime in particular: access to, and the framework for, funding cases within the regime; the scope and certification of cases; ADR, settlement and damages; and the distribution of funds. The con - sultation notes that the tens of billions of pounds in damages claimed and hundreds of millions of pounds spent on legal fees is far higher than estimated in the original impact assessment. It also said that while the expectation was that the majority of cases would be follow-on, approximately 90% of the current case - load is made of standalone cases. The government is considering how alternative dispute resolution and voluntary redress schemes could be made more effec -
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