Too much of a good thing

While the quality of experts' reports was deemed excellent, the Honourable Mr Justice Michael Green, sitting with Sir Iain McMillan and Derek Ridyard in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in Royal Mail Group Ltd v DAF Trucks Ltd and Ors, added "a note of caution in relation to the expert evidence. We received thousands of pages of detailed experts’ reports on all of the issues before us. There were central, important issues on the Overcharge and Supply Pass On where the size of the reports could be justified. But there were other subsidiary issues, such as Complements and Loss of Volume, where we considered that there was disproportionate time and money spent on complicated analyses that were less justified. Not only does this increase the overall costs of these proceedings but also it is highly burdensome on the Tribunal, and we would urge parties in other similar cases to exercise some restraint and sense of proportion in the preparation of their expert evidence.".

In all, 48 experts’ reports were filed in the overcharging claims brought by Royal Mail and BT against Dutch truck manufacturer DAF.

The trial lasted 25 days, within the time allotted. Approximately 12 days were spent on expert evidence, including “hot-tubbing” of the experts on some issues.

If you have the time and inclination, you can read the 301-page judgment via the link below.