In AUBREY WEISS v GREATER MANCHESTER COMBINED AUTHORITY ( 2025 ) CAT 27 the Competition Appeal Tribunal has given its first Judgment on the balance to be struck in judicial review kind challenges under Section 70(1) of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 between on the one hand the protection of commercially confidential information and on the other hand procedural fairness and open justice. The CAT held that the balance in all the circumstances of this case required that the Appellant’s principal decision-maker be admitted to a confidentiality ring in order to review GMCA’s confidential decision-making documents in relation to loans made by the GMCA, both GMCA documents and documents, including pricing information, of the Appellant’s development competitor and recipients of the loans.
The CAT from para 18 considered the relevant law in relation to the subsidy control regime; and from para 21 the relevant law on managing particularly sensitive confidential information during litigation and confidentiality rings. The information to which access was sought was ( para 43 ) highly important for assessing the merits of the case and in deciding what points to take or not take. The CAT at para 57 identified what was comprised in the balancing exercise. It imposed protections to mitigate against risks : paras 58-61 inc.