Judgment of the Tribunal further to a Claim by London Array for follow-on damages as against the Defendants arising out of the Commission's Decision dated 2 April 2014 in Case AT.39610, which found that the Defendants and others participated in a cartel concerning high-voltage power cables. The Claim arose out of the Claimants' joint venture involving the construction of a windfarm in the Thames Estuary and the high-voltage power cables which were supplied for it by Nexans Norway AS, a member of the same corporate group as the Defendants, though not addressed in the Commission's Decision.
Damages were sought on the basis of an alleged overcharge in respect of both export and inter-array cables which were supplied by Nexans Norway.
The Tribunal concluded the existence of the overcharge in respect of export cables on the basis of the following matters (in summary):
(1) the auction process for the supply of export cables for the windfarm had been affected by cartel behaviour;
(2) a group-to-group comparison between "during cartel" projects and "after cartel" projects produced a margin some 7% higher for "during cartel" projects;
(3) the difference in margin between "during cartel" and "after cartel" projects produced statistically significant, or close to statistically significant, results;
(4) it was entirely likely that there would have been additional bidders for export cables absent the cartel; and
(5) the individual-to-group comparison, while not statistically significant, was evidence pointing in favour of the existence of the overcharge.
The Tribunal concluded the applicable overcharge in respect of export cables was 5%.
The Tribunal found no overcharge in respect of inter-array cables, concluding that London Array had not shown, on a balance of probabilities, that there as any such overcharge.
Finally, the Tribunal concluded that the applicable interest rate was the Bank of England base rate plus 2%.
