Norton Rose advises Asda in Competition Appeal Tribunal success

International legal practice Norton Rose LLP has advised the UK supermarket group Asda (part of Wal-Mart) on its successful appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against a decision of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in relation to pricing practices for tobacco products in the UK.

The original fines were imposed by the OFT in 2010 after a seven year investigation. They totalled more than £200 million and were imposed on the two major tobacco suppliers and a number of leading retailers in relation to alleged anti-competitive pricing practices going back to the year 2000.

Asda, together with some of the other parties, appealed against the OFT's decision.

This was a complex multi-party appeal case involving a great deal of factual and expert economist evidence as well as untested issues of law.  Had it run its full course, this would have been the longest trial at the Competition Appeal Tribunal to date.  As it turned out, the trial ended early because the appellants were able to persuade the Tribunal that the evidence heard did not support the OFT’s case.

In its judgment, delivered on 12 December, the Tribunal rejected the OFT’s case and upheld the appeal.

The Norton Rose LLP team was led by Mark Jones (partner) working with Peter Scott (partner), assisted by Caroline Thomas (senior associate), Ian Giles (senior associate), Yasmine Gaspard (associate), and Mark Daniels (associate).

Mark Jones, partner at Norton Rose LLP, commented:

“We are very pleased that we were able to achieve an early win for Asda in this high profile litigation.”

For further information please contact:

Gavin Collins, PR manager, Norton Rose LLP
Tel: +44 (0)20 7444 2466; Mob: +44 (0)7770 650 113
gavin.collins@nortonrose.com