OFT given a month from publication of final appeal judgment

The Office of Fair Trading has been given extra time to decide if it wants to appeal against the huge reductions in bid-rigging fines it imposed on contractors.

The Competition Appeals Tribunal has reduced the fines on all seven of the firms who have had their appeals against the OFT’s judgment published, with some of the fines reduced by up to 95%.

The Tribunal today said it will allow the OFT one month from the publication of the final appeal judgment to decide whether it wants to appeal itself. In total 25 firms have appealed with judgments expected shortly.