{"id":56943,"date":"2015-05-15T09:13:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T09:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1cd15f79231fc60885d4310e9e9acef8"},"modified":"2015-05-15T09:13:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T09:13:15","slug":"news-story-cma-statement-on-court-of-appeal-judgment-in-eurotunnel-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=56943","title":{"rendered":"News story: CMA statement on Court of Appeal judgment in Eurotunnel case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Competition and Markets Authority (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) will study the judgment carefully and consider its next steps.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Coop\u00e9rative de Production de SeaFrance S.A.\">SCOP<\/abbr> (Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Coop\u00e9rative de Production de SeaFrance S.A.), the workers\u2019 collective operating the MyFerryLink service on behalf of its owner Eurotunnel, had argued that when, in 2012, the companies acquired the 3 ferries and related assets of the former SeaFrance operation (now liquidated) and recommenced a ferry service on the Dover\u2013Calais route under the MyFerryLink brand, this should not be treated as a merger under the UK merger control rules.<\/p>\n<p>By a 2 to 1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal today upheld the appeal by the <abbr title=\"Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Coop\u00e9rative de Production de SeaFrance S.A.\">SCOP<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>The background to this decision is that in June 2013 the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s predecessor, the Competition Commission, had decided that a merger had occurred and that having Eurotunnel running a ferry service on the short sea route as well as the competing rail link would <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/20140402141250\/http:\/www.competition-commission.org.uk\/media-centre\/latest-news\/2013\/Jun\/cc-to-bar-eurotunnel-ferries-from-dover\">damage competition<\/a> in the markets for passenger and freight customers. It ruled that the current level of competition on the Dover\u2013Calais route was unsustainable and likely to leave Eurotunnel as owner of 1 of 2 competing ferry services as well as the rail link.<\/p>\n<p>That decision was challenged before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, who upheld the finding on competition, but remitted for reconsideration the question of whether the particular arrangements in this case met the statutory definition of a merger. The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/ban-on-eurotunnel-ferry-service-confirmed-by-cma\">subsequently decided<\/a> that it considered they did meet the statutory definition of a merger and that decision was then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/cma-welcomes-judgment-in-eurotunnel-case\">upheld<\/a> by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, but has now been overturned by today\u2019s judgement.<\/p>\n<p>For all information relating to this case please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/eurotunnel-seafrance-merger-inquiry\">case page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CMA notes today\u2019s judgment by the Court of Appeal upholding a challenge to its ability to bar Eurotunnel from running its MyFerryLink service out of Dover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}