Aramark loses challenge over missed deadline after Simpson Thacher blunder

Aramark has lost a bid to revive a competition appeal that was filed late after its lawyers at Simpson Thacher miscalculated the deadline.

Scotland’s Court of Session dismissed the challenge on Wednesday, leaving in place a Competition Appeal Tribunal decision that refused to give US facilities management group Aramark extra time to challenge an order from the Competition and Markets Authority.

The dispute stems from Aramark’s acquisition of Scottish offshore catering business Entier in January 2025. A year later, the CMA ordered Aramark to sell the business after finding that the deal raised competition concerns.

Aramark had four weeks to appeal. Simpson Thacher calculated the deadline as 5pm on Friday 13 February 2026, when it was actually 5pm on Thursday 12 February.

The appeal was eventually filed at 12.02pm on the Friday - 19 hours and two minutes late.

Deadline challenge

In March, the Competition Appeal Tribunal refused to extend the deadline, finding that Simpson Thacher had misinterpreted the rules when calculating the filing date.

Aramark then sought to challenge that decision, arguing that it should not bear the consequences of a mistake made by specialist legal advisers.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh rejected that argument.

Judges held that relying on external lawyers did not automatically amount to an exceptional circumstance justifying more time. The court also found that Aramark shared responsibility because the filing had been left until the end of the deadline period.

The ruling means the CMA’s decision requiring Aramark to sell Entier remains in place.