A neat reminder of the relevance of follow-up litigation and anchor defendants in the EU competition law sector. In [2012] EWCA Civ 1190 KME Yorkshire et al v Toshiba Carrier UK at al [2012] EWCA Civ 1190 the Court of Appeal has confirmed that a connected undertaking that had implemented, but not been party to, an anti-competitive agreement, can nevertheless be in breach of Article 101 TFEU (the foundation Article for EU competition law) and therefore ground jurisdiction against all other defendants who had been originally named in the Commission decision fining the companies concerned.
Toshiba et al had been buying large quantities of copper tubes from the group of companies which had been fined earlier by the European Commission (for follow-up litigation at the ECJ see here).
Article 6 of the Jurisdiction Regulation on multipartite litigation and consolidated claims, includes four cases which grant jurisdiction to a court which does not originally have it against some of the defendants and which are effectively joined to its jurisdiction against another. Are all inserted because of procedural expediency and because of the need to avoid irreconcilable judgments. However they all do harbour scope for abuse hence the ECJ has interpreted each of them fairly strictly.
Procedural efficiency and forum shopping often tempts plaintiffs into identifying an ‘anchor defendant’ in one jurisdiction, subsequently to employ Article 6 (or similar provisions in national law for subjects outside of the JR) to engage other parties in the same jurisdiction. The KME decision at the Court of Appeal confirms the kosherness of forum shopping and anchor defendants in cases such as these.
Geert.
gavc law - geert van calster 