CAT dismisses private healthcare judicial review

16/03/15

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled against an application for judicial review of part of the report of the Competition and Markets Authority (“the CMA”) under section 179 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (“the Act”) brought by AXA PPP Healthcare Limited (“AXA PPP”). 

AXA PPP challenged parts of the CMA’s final report on its investigation of the private healthcare market dated 2^nd April 2014 (“the Report”). In that Report, the CMA concluded that the formation and operation of consultant groups did not give rise to an adverse effect on competition for the purposes of section 134 of the Act.

The CAT held that the CMA had been justified to reach that conclusion on the evidence before it and rejected AXA PPP’s case that the Report on this issue should be quashed and remitted to the CMA for a more in-depth investigation.

The judgment is here.