Panel appointed for CAMRA beer tie appeal

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has appointed the panel which will review the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) appeal of the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) decision on its super complaint.

CAMRA has also today launched its fund raising campaign for the appeal.

CAMRA has called for the OFT's decision that the beer tie was fair to consumers to "be quashed and referred back to the OFT to reconsider whether to conduct a further market study or make a reference to the Commission".

The panel who will now review the case includes judge Vivien Rose, chartered accountant Peter Clayton and Professor John Pickering. Rose, an expert on European Competition Law, is a judge of the First-Tier Tribunal in the Charity jurisdiction.

Clayton is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and has held senior financial management positions in FTSE 100 companies.

Pickering is an economic and business consultant who has held academic positions at UMIST, Bath, Durham and Southampton. He served for nine years as a member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

Grounds for review​

CAMRA has put forward five principal grounds for review. They are:

• The OFT's conclusion that there is effective competition between pubs at a retail level was based on a manifestly incorrect market definition. The OFT failed to conduct any, or any appropriate, analysis of the markets at a local level, gave no reasons for such failure, and instead relied on irrelevant considerations in defining the local market.

• The OFT's conclusion that there is no restriction of competition in the wholesale market is based on wholly deficient logic, and is unreasonable.

• The OFT's conclusion that lessees benefit from the beer tie was based on no evidence. As such, the OFT's consequent conclusion that lessees did not pay a higher price overall, such as might be passed onto consumers, was likewise based on no evidence.

• The OFT's conclusion that there is effective competition between the pubs at a retail level was reached by a flawed procedure. The OFT did not request further information from CAMRA before reaching this conclusion, and in doing so failed to act fairly and to comply with its obligations under section 169 of the Act and with the terms of its own Guidance.

• The OFT erred in law in failing to apply the correct threshold for the exercise of its powers to respond to the super-complaint.

From today, consumers can visit www.camra.org.uk​ and contribute to the 'Consumers v. OFT Pub Market Ruling' Campaign Fund.

Outspoken Liberal Democrat MP promised to donate to the appeal, saying: "CAMRA has shown great leadership and courage on this issue and I hope CAMRA members and all supporters of the British pub will rally round and give generously to the legal fund. I will be making a donation and will be asking other members of the Save the Pub group to consider doing the same."