Salmon certification claim slips through the net

15/04/26

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has today handed down judgment in Waterside Class Limited v Mowi ASA & Ors [2026] CAT 32, declining at this stage to make a collective proceedings order in proposed opt-out competition proceedings concerning Atlantic salmon, while inviting a further application on a revised basis. 

The proposed claim was brought on behalf of UK consumers who purchased salmon from retailers. It is alleged that six major Norwegian and Scottish producers of Atlantic Salmon unlawfully colluded between April 2013 and February 2019 to increase the price of Atlantic Salmon, with those increased costs said to have been passed on, in whole or in part, to consumers. The Proposed Defendants deny unlawful collusion. 

The Tribunal held that the claim was “not currently suitable for a CPO” on the material before it. Its principal concern was that there was insufficient evidence to support an expectation that the amount likely to be returned to the class would be proportionate to, or exceed, the proposed costs of the claim. 

The Tribunal also concluded that the Proposed Class Representative had not, at this stage, adequately addressed that costs-benefit question in her evidence, and was therefore not prepared to authorise it as class representative on the present application. 

The Tribunal did not finally reject the claim. It held that there was, in principle, a case for consumers to be represented in opt-out proceedings alongside the related Asda and Tesco retailer claims, and invited a revised application, supported by a substantially reduced budget and a more effective distribution mechanism. 

The judgment will be of wider interest in collective proceedings, in particular for its treatment of certification, proportionality and distribution. It underlines the Tribunal’s close scrutiny of whether proposed proceedings are likely to deliver a meaningful return to the class, while leaving open the possibility that a reformulated consumer claim may yet swim upstream. 

The judgment can be read here.