The London antitrust, regulatory and competition team at international legal practice Norton Rose LLP has been successful in preventing its client PayPoint plc from being subjected to anti-competitive practices by the National Lottery operator Camelot.
The Norton Rose LLP team helped PayPoint highlight to the National Lottery regulator that the regulator should block – on competition law grounds – a move by the Camelot to exploit its monopoly National Lottery rights by leveraging them onto the bill payments markets where PayPoint operates – a move which could have caused potentially serious damage to the commercial bill payments market in Britain.
PayPoint, advised by Norton Rose LLP, argued that Camelot’s move would, among other legal issues, infringe EU and UK competition law (the prohibition on abuse of a dominant position) and that, if the regulator consented to it, that risked putting the United Kingdom in breach of EU law (specifically Article 106).
These arguments involved the application of existing competition law principles to a new context.
In its decision announced today (2 March 2011), the regulator, the National Lottery Commission, effectively accepted PayPoint’s arguments. It said:
“The Commission has decided to refuse consent to Camelot’s application to undertake Ancillary Activities because of serious concerns arising out of EU/competition law. This decision was arrived at following a detailed consultation process, taking into account the views of interested parties and legal advice in a complicated and developing area of law.”
Within a few hours of the decision, PayPoint’s shares had risen by more than 20 per cent, having previously been suppressed by concerns about the effects of Camelot’s proposals.
The Norton Rose LLP competition team was led by Michael Grenfell, working with Caroline Thomas and James Flett, with Peter Scott, competition litigation Partner, preparing for possible litigious outcomes.
The team also took advice from Thomas Sharpe QC and Matthew Cook, barristers at One Essex Court, and from Adrian Majumdar and Derek Ridyard, economists at RBB Economics.
