Erso Capital backs suit against salmon giants

London firm Simmons & Simmons has filed an action at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal seeking £382m on behalf of UK consumers from fish firms Mowi and its subsidiary Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg, some of the world’s largest salmon producers, for alleged price fixing. The claim, which is being funded by Erso Capital, says UK consumers overpaid for at least four years because of alleged breaches of competition law by the defendants, which they say drove up the price of farmed Atlantic salmon by as much as 20%.

In May last year, several of the companies – Mowi, Grieg, Lerøy, SalMar and Cermaq – agreed to pay £67.2m ($85m) to settle a three-year class action by clients in the US over the same price-fixing claims.