Gallaher & Somerfield v CMA

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by Gallaher Group Limited and Somerfield Stores Limited relating to the OFT’s failure to repay those companies sums equivalent to the penalties they had paid pursuant to the OFT’s Tobacco Decision, in circumstances where the OFT had made such a repayment to another addressee of the Decision (TM Retail) following the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s order quashing that Decision in 2012. The Court of Appeal has found that the OFT’s conduct in refusing to pay the appellants on the same basis as TM Retail was a breach of the public law principle of  equal treatment and was unfair, and that the unequal treatment was not objectively justified.

The full judgment can be read in the attached pdf. 

David Pannick QC and Hanif Mussa acted for Gallaher.

Monica Carss-Frisk QC and Jessica Boyd acted for Somerfield.