It's a conspiracy! Or is it? The difficulty with the economic torts as 'alternative' causes of action for competition law damages actions in UK courts

Stirling, Grant

Abstract

• Damages actions brought in UK courts under either EU or UK competition law generally invoke breach of statutory duty as the cause of action. • Attempts have been made by claimants in recent years, however, to use the economic torts of conspiracy by unlawful means and unlawful interference as alternative causes of action. • While theoretically these torts are – in certain cases – valid causes of action for competition law damages actions, in practice they are more difficult to invoke than breach of statutory duty. • Ultimately, for policy reasons, it is unlikely that such torts will be allowed to constitute valid causes of action in competition cases where an action for breach of statutory duty is not available.

Citation

Stirling, G. (2017). It's a conspiracy! Or is it? The difficulty with the economic torts as 'alternative' causes of action for competition law damages actions in UK courts. Journal of European Competition Law and Practice, 8(4), 233-241. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeclap/lpw085

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 3, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 3, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 26, 2018
• Journal: Journal of European Competition Law and Practice
• Print ISSN: 2041-7764
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-7772
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 233-241
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeclap/lpw085
• Keywords: Competition law damages actions
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/446729
• Publisher URL: http://jeclap.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/10/30/jeclap.lpw085.full
• Additional Information: This is a description of an article published in: Journal of European competition law and practice, 2017, v.8, issue 4