On a power trip? High Court finds Secretary of State acted ultra vires

21 May, 2019
In R. (on the application of VIP Communications Ltd) (In Liquidation) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 994 (Admin), the High Court quashed a direction given by the Secretary of State to Ofcom, which purported to limit the use of telecoms devices known as “GSM Gateways” on national security grounds. The Court held … Read more

Leave it to the experts? High Court finds more expected from regulators on matters where they lack expertise

30 April, 2019
The Administrative Court in R. (on the application of Gwynt-y-Môr Offshore Wind Farm Ltd) v Gas and Electricity Markets Authority [2019] EWHC 654 (Admin) has criticised a regulator for failing to sufficiently analyse the differences between precedents and the case at hand and for failing to properly consider the views of the independent expert that it had commissioned. … Read more

Difficulties in challenging regulatory action demonstrated again by High Court

06 March, 2019
In Npower Direct Ltd v the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and the Competition Markets Authority [2018] EWHC 3576 (Admin), the High Court dismissed Npower’s claim for judicial review of a Direction by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“Ofgem“) that Npower was required to circulate information to its customers designed to make them consider Npower’s terms … Read more

Unreasonable timetable set by regulator quashed for unfairness

20 February, 2019
In J Sainsbury plc and Asda Group Limited v Competition and Markets Authority[2019] CAT 1, 18 January 2019 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) granted an application made jointly by Sainsbury’s and Asda (the “Applicants”) in respect of two decisions by a regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), regarding the timetable for an investigation into their proposed … Read more