The Court of Appeal has today handed down judgment in Secretary of State for Health and others v Servier Laboratories [2019] EWCA Civ 1096. The Court of Appeal dismissed Servier’s appeal against Roth J’s decision that findings of fact made by the General Court in its judgment in Servier v Commission Case T-691/14 handed down on 12 December 2018 will not bind the English Court in the forthcoming preliminary issues trial in the High Court listed for October 2019.

Rose LJ concluded that there was no support in the European cases reviewed for the idea that factual findings made by the Court in an annulling judgment can be utilised in domestic proceedings and treated as being binding. The Claimants are therefore not precluded in the preliminary issues trial from adducing their own evidence and arguing that the High Court should make factual findings which are contrary to those reached by the General Court, as the question arises in a different context.

Jonathan Tickner, Jason Woodland, Emma Ruane and Nikita Damburgs all act for the Secretary of State for Health pursuing the claims on behalf of the English NHS.

The full text of the judgment is here .