High Court Upholds Claim That Heathrow Airport Abused A Dominant Position Over Access To Forecourts

The High Court has upheld a claim by two car parking operators that Heathrow Airport Limited ('Heathrow') (a subsidiary of BAA) abused a dominant position in breach of the Competition Act. The claimants argued that Heathrow had placed them at a competitive disadvantage by applying dissimilar conditions which denied them access to the forecourts at Terminals 1 and 3 of Heathrow Airport (the 'Airport').

Heathrow operates a number of car parks at the Airport. It also operates a meet and greet service through a valet parking division. The complainants, Purple Parking Limited ('PPL') and Meteor Parking Limited ('MPL') each operate a meet and greet service. The three parties each used the forecourts at Terminals 1 and 3 as their meeting and greeting point.

In 2010, however, Heathrow sought to change the arrangements by proposing that it alone should be allowed to operate from the forecourts at Terminals 1 and 3, with PPL and MPL having to use Heathrow's car parks as their meet and greet point. In addition, in order to use the car parks, a charge of at least £1.50 per vehicle would be applied.

The Court found that Heathrow was dominant in the upstream 'facilities market' (which covers the provision of access to the Airport's facilities, including roads and forecourts). The downstream market was considered to be the meet and greet market at the Airport. On the latter, the Court took into account the convenience of meet and greet facilities compared to short stay car parking and found that customers who preferred meet and greet would not have switched to a short stay car park if faced with a 5-10% price increase.

The claimants argued that Heathrow...