Practice—Parties—Representative proceedings

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Mummery, Toulson and Rimer LJJ,
18 Nov 2010

In order for represented persons to be bound by a judgment, that judgment has to have been obtained in proceedings that were properly constituted as a representative action before the judgment was obtained. 

Iain Milligan QC and Ben Rayment (instructed by Hausfeld & Co LLP) for the claimants.Kenneth MacLean QC and Robert O’Donoghue (instructed by Slaughter and May) for the defendant.

The proceedings concerned allegations of global infringements of competition law by illegal price-fixing cartels operating in the area of air freight charges.  The aim on the litigation was to obtain collective redress for consumers of the services.  The consumers were a very extensive group, both numerically and geographically.  The first claimant imported cut flowers into the United Kingdom from Columbia. It used the defendant’s air freight services and those of other international airlines. The claim was made by the claimant on its own behalf and on behalf