Quinn Emanuel London successfully represented Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, the winner of the UK 4th National Lottery Licence Competition and its parent, Allwyn International a.s.
Quinn Emanuel London successfully represented Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, the winner of the UK 4th National Lottery Licence Competition and its parent, Allwyn International a.s. in procurement proceedings brought by International Game Technology plc (IGT) and four other group entities. IGT brought substantial damages claims against the UK Gambling Commission for breaches of the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 in the competition for the 4th licence. Allwyn participated as Interested Parties. A 3-week trial was fixed for January 2024.
The question decided by the Court today was whether the IGT entities, as subcontractors, had standing to bring their claims under the CCR 2016. The Gambling Commission, supported by Allwyn, argued that since IGT were not bidders in the competition, they were not “economic operators” under the CCR 2016 and that the claims should be dismissed.
In his judgment on a preliminary issue, Coulson LJ (sitting as a High Court Judge) held that it was necessary to adopt a purposive construction to the definition of “economic operator” in accordance with the approach of the Supreme Court in Brent LBC v Risk Management Partners Limited [2011] 2 A.C. 34 and EnergySolutions v Nuclear Decommissioning Authority [2017] 1 W.L.R. 1373. The Judge held that the IGT entities were not economic operators for the purposes of the CCR 2016 and accordingly held that they had no standing to bring any claim under the legislation. Their claims should therefore be dismissed.
The Quinn Emanuel team was led by Dominic Roughton, assisted by Julianne Hughes Jennett, James Smithdale, Marjun Parcasio, and Annabel Elliott, and a counsel team of Charles Hollander KC (Brick Court), Helen Davies KC (Brick Court), Joseph Barrett (11 KBW), and Malcolm Birdling (Brick Court).