The Court of Appeal has refused an appeal by Protégé International Group (Cyprus) Limited and Avalon International Management Inc. against an order requiring them to provide security for Irish Distillers Limited’s costs in their competition law case. The appeal court fixed the security at €1 million and ordered that the proceedings remain stayed until it is provided.
The underlying High Court action alleges that Irish Distillers abused a dominant position in the Irish whiskey market by refusing to supply whiskey to the appellants and applying discriminatory conditions. Those are allegations in the substantive case, which seeks damages and other relief; the appeal concerned security for costs, not whether the competition law claims are true.
The High Court had ordered the companies to provide €1 million in security, staying the case in default. On appeal, the companies argued, among other things, that their financial difficulties resulted from Irish Distillers’ alleged conduct and that the case raised issues of exceptional public importance. They also challenged how the amount had been set and argued they had not had a fair opportunity to address it.
The Court of Appeal held that the appellants had not established, even on a prima facie basis, that their inability to meet a costs award was caused by the alleged wrongdoing at issue in the case. The court cited the absence of evidence quantifying losses attributable to each company, the lack of financial evidence about Avalon, and gaps in Protégé’s financial material. It also found that some alleged losses related to earlier periods, trademark litigation involving Pernod Ricard, or assertions unsupported by sufficient evidence for this application.
The court also rejected the argument that the case crossed the threshold for exceptional public importance. It described the proceedings as private litigation between commercial operators and said the appellants had not identified a specific uncertainty in competition law requiring clarification. The appeal against the entitlement to security was therefore refused.
On the amount, the Court of Appeal said the record did not establish exactly what submissions had been made in the High Court, and it did not decide whether the trial judge had denied the appellants a fair opportunity to be heard. Because both sides had asked the appeal court to set the amount if security remained ordered, it assessed the figure itself. It considered the parties’ competing estimates of Irish Distillers’ costs—€1.22 million and €704,750—and fixed security at €1 million. The court said the amount should be significant but not an indemnity, and noted there was no claim that security would prevent the litigation from continuing.
The court criticised the High Court judgment for stating conclusions without explaining the reasons. The security order nevertheless stands: proceedings remain stayed pending payment of the €1 million.