Latest Cases

European Commission – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union allowed the application by Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij NV for annulment of Commission Decision C(2010) 7694 final (the contested decision) in which the European Commission had found that Air Canada and other carriers had participated in a single and continuous infringement of EU competition law by co-ordinating its behaviour as regards the pricing of freight services. The General Court decided that the contested decision was vitiated by a defective statement of reasons which justified its annulment. 

European Commission – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union allowed the application by Air Canada for annulment of Commission Decision C(2010) 7694 final (the contested decision) in which the European Commission had found that Air Canada and other carriers had participated in a single and continuous infringement of EU competition law by co-ordinating its behaviour as regards the pricing of freight services. The General Court decided that the contested decision was vitiated by a defective statement of reasons which justified its annulment. 

European Commission – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union allowed the application by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd for annulment of Commission Decision C(2010) 7694 final (the contested decision) in which the European Commission had found that Air Canada and other carriers had participated in a single and continuous infringement of EU competition law by co-ordinating its behaviour as regards the pricing of freight services. The General Court decided that the contested decision was vitiated by a defective statement of reasons which justified its annulment. 

Employment – Discrimination. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, in allowing the employer, Ford Motor Company Ltd's appeal, held that an employment judge who had ruled at a preliminary hearing that the employment tribunal had jurisdiction, under the Equality Act 2010, to hear age discrimination claims by pensioners, had erred in failing to consider whether the claims fell within both limits of the Act and in applying the Act. 

Criminal law – Assault. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's challenge to a simple caution administered on her by the defendant Metropolitan Police Commissioner for an alleged offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The Commissioner had not breached para 76 of the Ministry of Justice guidance 'Simple Cautions for Adult Offenders' by having stated that the alleged victim had had a broken nose, when it had only been suspected that her nose had been broken. 

Claim form – Service. The Patents Court allowed the claimant company's application for permission to serve proceedings out of the jurisdiction on the second defendant, a company based in China. There was a serious issue to be tried as well as a good arguable case. Further, England and Wales was plainly the proper place to bring the claim. 

Immigration – Refugee. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's decision to certify his asylum claim as clearly unfounded and return him to Italy for determination of his asylum claim. None of the material before the court rendered it arguable that a tribunal could conclude that the evidential presumption of compliance by Italy with its obligations under European Union law was rebutted. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed an appeal by prospective adopters against an order that a child should be removed from their care and returned to the care of her father. Both the hearing itself and parts of the judge's analysis had been flawed to such an extent that the outcome could not safely be relied upon and, accordingly, the order would be set aside and the welfare issue determined afresh by a different judge. 

Sentence – Appeal. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that a total sentence of six years' imprisonment for the offences of attempted rape and sexual assault was not unduly lenient. The judge's reduction of two years from the eight-year starting point for the attempted rape offence was very generous, but was not unduly lenient. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Hikari Miso Ltd (Hikari) against the decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) relating to opposition proceedings between Nishimoto Trading Co. Ltd and Hikari concerning the application by the latter company for registration of the word mark 'Hikari' as a Community trade mark.