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CAT rejects preliminary issue trial on applicable law/territorial scope of competition law

04/11/25

On 31 October 2025, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) rejected a preliminary issue application by Apple concerning applicable law and territorial application in a competition law case.  

The case concerns collective proceedings brought by UK-domiciled app developers who claim that Apple’s commissions charged for app distribution and in-app purchases are unfairly high and amount to an abuse of a dominant position. The case was certified in 2024. 

One issue in the proceedings is whether UK and/or EU law applies to all of the claim or whether, as Apple contends, non-UK/EU laws apply to certain aspects of the claim.  A related issue is whether UK/EU competition law can, as a territorial matter, apply to all of the developers’ claim.  Apple applied for these issues to be determined as a preliminary issue. The CAT rejected the application, essentially because they were not easily separable from the issues in the main trial, and thus gave rise to a risk of inefficiency, duplication or inconsistent outcomes.  The judgment contains some interesting discussion of the nature of a “clean” split in such cases.

The judgment is here.

Robert O'Donoghue KC acted for the Class Representative.

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