Competition, or antitrust law aims to prevent parties with market power from engaging in conduct which could distort the competitive process. It’s an essential mechanism for maintaining a competitive marketplace.

Competition litigation enables both consumers and corporates to seek compensation for anti-competitive behaviour.  These disputes can be complex and expensive, with defendants typically being large companies with substantial resources. Litigation funding can help you level the playing field.

At Augusta we absorb the cost and risk of complex competition litigation cases by providing non-recourse funding. This means that our capital investment is tied to the successful outcome of the case, so if the case is lost you don’t owe anything.  We are one of the few litigation funders that possess a dedicated team with specialist expertise in competition law and economics.  This helps us get to the heart of the issue, which means our finance can be made available quicker than our competitors.

Our capital is available to finance legal fees and expenses at any stage of a dispute. We finance disputes in multiple jurisdictions, across the UK, EU, North America and Australia.

Claim types include:

• Follow-on damages claims
• Standalone damages claims
• ‘Hybrid’ damages claims (e.g. claims combining follow-on and standalone elements)
• Cartel damages claims
• Abuse of dominance claims
• Collective Actions / Class Actions
• State aid damages claims

Case Studies

Qualcomm
We are financing Which?’s landmark class action, on behalf of more than 29 million consumers, against technology giant Qualcomm.  The claim is currently on foot in the UK’s competition appeal tribunal.  It is alleged that Qualcomm abused its market power, which resulted in inflated smartphone costs, with estimated losses in excess of £450m.

Trucks
We are financing multiple group actions, in the UK and Germany against an EEA-wide cartel of truck manufacturers.  The claims follow-on from European Commission decisions, which identified that a number of the largest manufacturers had coordinated the pricing of trucks over a 14-year period between 1997 and 2011.