The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) will hold a hearing on Thursday 13 February to consider the future case management of two competing collective actions involving six major banks.

The actions relate to unlawful foreign exchange spot trading cartels and in December 2019, specialist litigation firm, Hausfeld, filed an opt-out collective action (FX Claim UK) against Barclays, Citibank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, UBS and MUFG Bank on behalf of Phillip Evans.

Evans, a former inquiry chair with the Competition and Markets Authority, has proposed to represent the interests of thousands of participants in the foreign exchange market by claiming damages for the harm alleged to have been caused by the banks’ unlawful conduct – which took place between 2007 to 2013.

“I believe strongly in ensuring that the UK has an effective collective redress regime, so that those affected by anti-competitive conduct are compensated,” Evans commented.

“This case concerns serious misconduct in a very important market, and I have been working with Hausfeld to carefully prepare FX Claim UK following the European Commission’s two decisions, which were announced in May 2019.”

The CAT, a judicial body with expertise in law, economics, business and accountancy, hears and decides cases involving competition or economic regulatory issues.

The future case management of Evans’ claim will be considered alongside a similar application filed to the CAT – by Scott+Scott – on behalf of Michael O’Higgins FX Class Representative Limited in July 2019.

The two applications will compete for certification and the CAT will need to decide which is more suitable to act as the class representative – which is the first time that this issue will be considered by the English courts.

The hearing is scheduled to start at 10am on Thursday 13 February, lasting for two days.

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