KING'S BENCH DIVISION
COMMERCIAL COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
Sitting as a Judge of the High Court
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SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LIMITED and others |
Claimants |
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- and - |
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LG DISPLAY CO. LTD and another |
Defendants |
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Robert O'Donoghue KC and Jonathan Scott (instructed by Covington & Burling LLP) for the Claimants
Hearing date: 16 January 2023
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Crown Copyright ©
This judgment was handed down by the judge remotely by circulation to the parties' representatives by email and release to The National Archives. The date and time for hand-down is deemed to be Friday 03 February 2023 at 10:00am.
Sir Nigel Teare :
"If the Commission Decision is binding on the issue of relative culpability, evidence to contradict it will not be admissible, even if available. In that event the judge's view that the issue of relative culpability needs to be tried in the Far East, with the benefit of witness evidence and disclosure of documents there, would be mistaken. Moreover, the question whether the Commission findings are binding is itself a question of English or EU law, requiring careful analysis of the Commission Decision, which might well be better determined here rather than in the Far East……."
"In those circumstances many judges might have been sceptical about the suggestion that there needed to be witness evidence and disclosure of documents in the Far East in order for the issue of relative culpability to be determined. But I do not think it is possible to say that the judge's view was not rationally open to him. In particular, counsel then appearing for [the Claimant] appears expressly to have accepted that further relevant documents, not disclosed to the Commission, might be available."