Railway Infrastructure Company Pays Price for Infringing Competition Law

If you have suffered financial loss due to another's breach of competition law, expert lawyers will see to it that you are fairly compensated. In a case on point, a provider of supplier assurance schemes that was for years kept out of the railway infrastructure market was awarded seven-figure damages.

A railway infrastructure company had in place a rule that required all those who wished to work on its infrastructure to obtain supplier assurance via a particular scheme and none other. After the provider launched proceedings, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) found that the rule infringed the terms of the Competition Act 1998. The company had since, as ordered, abandoned the rule and instituted new systems designed to enable other appropriately qualified providers of supplier assurance schemes to compete in the relevant market.

Following a further hearing, the CAT found that, as a result of the infringement and delays in finalising reform of the company's systems, the provider had been kept out of the relevant market for three years. Due to that hiatus, it was significantly less well placed to compete and it would take time for it to regain the market position it would have enjoyed had the infringement not occurred. The company was ordered to pay the provider £3,874,077 in damages, that sum reflecting the provider's loss of profits arising from the infringement.