Court of Appeal refuses Amazon permission to appeal in Robert Hammond v Amazon.com, Inc. & Others

Court of Appeal Judgement

The Court of Appeal has refused Amazon’s application for permission to appeal the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision granting Mr Hammond a collective proceedings order last July.

Amazon’s challenge focused solely on the CAT’s approach to the suitability of the class representative’s funding arrangements at the certification stage. Amazon argued that the potential return to be made by the funders was “wholly unreasonable” and that the CAT had erred in law by deferring scrutiny of those arrangements until the end of proceedings.

The Court of Appeal rejected that argument, emphasising that appeals against the CAT’s discretionary case management decisions, including certification, face a particularly high hurdle. In this case, the Court of Appeal found there was no error of law in the CAT’s assessment of Mr Hammond’s funding arrangement. The Court of Appeal also considered it important to bear in mind (at [16]) that Amazon’s purpose in raising this point was not likely motivated by altruistic concern for the class members represented by Mr Hammond.

The Court of Appeal further clarified that Gutmann does not impose a default rule of postponing review. Instead, it confirmed that the CAT retains a wide discretion to scrutinise funder returns at any stage, including at judgment or settlement.

We now look forward to representing Robert Hammond, alongside our colleagues at Hagens Berman EMEA LLP, in the case against Amazon at trial, on behalf of UK consumers.