CAT judgment on claim for damages by Enron against EWS Railway

The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) today ruled that a claim for damages by Enron Coal Services (in liquidation) against EWS Railway should be dismissed. The claim followed a finding by the Office of Rail Regulation that EWS had abused its dominant position in the supply of coal haulage by rail through pursuing selective and discriminatory pricing practices that placed Enron at a competitive disadvantage.  Enron alleged that these pricing practices had caused it to lose a tender for the haulage of coal to power stations operated by Edison Mission Energy (EME), and also a real or substantial chance of securing a four-year contract to supply coal to one of those power stations.

This was the first follow-on claim for damages to reach trial in the Tribunal.  The issue of causation was at the centre of the litigation.  The CAT found that Enron had not proven that it would have sought to negotiate with EME for a four-year coal supply contract, and that Enron had no real or substantial chance of supplying coal to EME (only a speculative prospect).  Therefore, Enron had failed to prove that it had suffered loss as a result of EWS's competition law infringement.

Zoltan Biro from Frontier (Europe) provided expert economic evidence on behalf of EWS Railway.

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