On 12 December the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal (“CAT”) unanimously quashed the 2010 Decision of the OFT in its Competition Act investigation into vertical agreements in the tobacco industry, The OFT had alleged that agreements between the leading manufacturers and certain retailers were anti-competitive by object and imposed record fines in excess of £220m on the parties, but the CAT concluded that the OFT’s case could not be sustained. RBB acted as economic experts to the leading UK manufacturer, Imperial Tobacco, throughout the OFT investigation and the CAT appeal, working with Ashurst LLP, Mark Howard QC and Mark Brealey QC.
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