Specialists in providing expert economic evidence in antitrust, competition damages and collective actions
Considering the recent interest in sports’ antitrust and the NST v World Snooker case, I have re-posted my 2001 Casenote “Markets in Sport – Competition Act 1998 case finds snooker body dominant” which commented on the 2001 High Court decision in Hendry v WPBSA [2001] All ER (D) 71. This looks at the importance of functional (vertical) markets in assessing sports’ competition issues.
The organisation of snooker is under scrutiny for the second time in the English courts. NST Worldwide v World Snooker & WPSBA has been filed in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal by an entrant alleging that the organiser of the World Snooker Tour and the sport’s governing have singly and jointly acted to restrict players’ freedom to play in tournaments organised by competitive
promoters. This case is a re-run of the 2001 High Court antitrust case Hendry v WPSBA (largely overlooked), where the WPSBA was found to have abused its dominance. Cento was then and is now the economist expert witness for the respective claimants. On the earlier case read his re-posted Casenote and ECLR article “Markets in Professional Sport”.