OUTLOOK FOR COMPETITION, SECURITIES AND ESG MASS CLAIMS
This article considers the outlook in 2025 for mass claims across the competition, securities litigation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) spheres in England and Wales. We also explore how certain of the challenges that parties are confronting in prosecuting and settling mass claims are common across the three sectors we examine, while others are specific to the nature of the claim.
Opt-out collective actions in the CAT: a focus on Big Tech
Opt-out collective actions issued in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) have been on the rise in recent years, and this trend shows no sign of abating in 2025. Big Tech in particular has found itself in the crosshairs, with Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta each the subject of at least one claim.
Consumer rights activists and academics are acting as the class representatives, seeking to achieve redress where they feel that regulators have either failed to take action, or are doing so too slowly. These collective actions have garnered significant interest, not least because they involve a diverse and complicated range of theories of harm relating to excessive or abusive pricing models, practices or events, which have historically been thought to fall more squarely within the preserve of consumer claims.
One such claim is Dr. Rachael Kent v. Apple Inc. & Anor., the trial of which was heard by the CAT earlier this year. Dr Kent alleges that Apple obtained and abused a dominant position in the markets for its iOS app distribution and payment processing services, which has caused developers to pay inflated fees to Apple that have in turn been passed on to individual iOS device users. Elsewhere, proceedings were issued in the CAT in December 2024 against Microsoft and Motorola, in respect of allegedly excessive and unfair pricing in relation to their Airwave Services and Windows Server products, respectively.
Apr-Jun 2025 issue
Travers Smith LLP