Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

CMA definition

What does CMA mean? In practice, CMA refers to the UK’s competition and markets authority, the national competition regulator that investigates mergers, cartels and abuse of dominance and enforces consumer protection law. The body is created and named by statute (Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013) and exercises powers principally under the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002, now complemented by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Key functions include UK merger control (Phase 1/Phase 2), market studies and market investigations, antitrust enforcement with administrative fines, acceptance of commitments and remedies, criminal cartel enforcement, director disqualification, and consumer law enforcement....

SeaFrance SCOP v CMA: EWCA Civ holds CMA lacked merger jurisdiction - asset acquisition not an 'enterprise' given prolonged inactivity and no transfer of staff (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

CASE HUB ARCHIVED

This archived case hub captures the position as at the judgment dated 15 May 2015 and is no longer maintained. See the timeline, commentary and related cases. Note—the CMA has Appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court in Société Coopérative de Production SeaFrance v CMA (Supreme Court).

Case facts

Outline

Appeal before the Court of Appeal by Société Coopérative de Production SeaFrance concerning the completed Acquisition by Eurotunnel of SeaFrance assets—this appeal contests the CAT’s judgment upholding the CMA’s decision in the Eurotunnel/SeaFrance remittal, confirming jurisdiction and again banning Eurotunnel from operating ferries from Dover. The Court of Appeal delivered its judgment and, by a two-to-one majority, allowed the appeal on 15 May 2015.

Parties

Groupe Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel operator that acquired three SeaFrance ferries and other assets and now runs them between Dover and Calais under the MyFerryLink brand.
Société Coopérative de Production SeaFrance (SCOP). SCop is the workers’ co‑operative of former SeaFrance employees who operate the MyFerryLink ferries for Eurotunnel and act as sales and marketing agent, while Eurotunnel bears the commercial risk.
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
DFDS, a Danish based

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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