Third Time’s The Charm: CAT Overturns Own Hydrocortisone Decision in Landmark Judgment

On 8 March, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the “CAT”) handed down a third judgment in two years in the hydrocortisone litigation (the“Judgment”), overturning its own Hydrocortisone (Cartel Infringements) judgment of 29 September 2023.  

The CAT found that the provisional findings of the Hydrocortisone (Cartel Infringements) judgment were “unsafe in the most fundamental way” as a result of “a very serious failure of due process” (Judgment, para. 10), referring to a failure by the CMA to cross-examine two Appellant witnesses on a point that formed the basis of the CMA’s case. The CAT overturned fines of nearly £100 million that the CMA had imposed on a number of companies that it found to have been party to an unlawful agreement. The Judgment does not affect a separate finding of abuse of dominance relating to the same products.

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