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Inntrepreneur Pub Company and others v Crehan (House of Lords)

On 19 July 2006, The House of Lords delivered its Opinion in the long-running case of Inntrepreneur Pub Company v Crehan.

The Court of Appeal had previously held (reversing the decision of the High Court) that a finding of fact by the European Commission, concerning the degree of competition present on the UK on-trade beer market in the early 1990s, was binding on the High Court, in spite of the fact that it was contained in decisions which were addressed not to Inntrepreneur but to the brewers Whitbread, Bass and Scottish & Newcastle.  On that basis, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court's ruling that competition on the UK beer market was not restricted and that, as a result, the "beer tie" agreement between the pub tenant, Mr Crehan and Inntrepreneur did not infringe competition rules on anti-competitive agreements.  The Court of Appeal therefore awarded Mr Crehan damages in compensation for losses suffered when his pub businesses failed.

The House of Lords overruled the Court of Appeal's judgment, holding that, as a matter of Community law, a national court is not bound by a factual finding by the European Commission in proceedings involving different parties and different agreements from those before the Commission.  In particular, the House of Lords held that the Court of Appeal's ruling would have resulted in unfairness to Inntrepreneur, as it neither took part in the European Commission's investigations into the other brewers nor did it have standing to challenge those decisions.  Consequently, the High Courts ruling was restored and damages were not available to Mr Crehan for breach of the competition rules.

Sir Jeremy Lever QC, Jon Turner QC and Ronit Kreisberger represented the Office of Fair Trading (the interveners).

To read our case note, please click here.

To read the judgment, please click here.

For more information on the members involved, please click below:
Sir Jeremy Lever KCMG QC
Jon Turner QC
Ronit Kreisberger