Article 23

(1)

Not less than 21 days before the application for directions is due to be heard, the Director shall serve notice of the application on every respondent who has entered an appearance (with the exception of any respondent who has been debarred under rule 15 from taking any further part in the proceedings) and shall set out in his notice full particulars of the directions for which he intends to apply, and a copy of the notice shall at the same time be filed with the proper officer of the Court.

(2)

Every respondent on whom notice is served under paragraph (1) shall, within 14 days of service of the notice, serve on the Director a notice specifying any directions which he may desire in so far as they differ from those applied for by the Director, and shall at the same time file a copy of the notice with the proper officer of the Court.

(3)

On the hearing of the application the Court shall give such directions as it considers necessary to secure the purposes mentioned in rule 22 and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, may give such directions as it may think fit as to—

(a)

the amendment of the notice of reference or any statement of case, answer or reply;

(b)

the delivery of further and better particulars or, in Scotland, the further specification, of the notice of reference or of any statement of case, answer or reply;

(c)

the delivery of interrogatories or, in Scotland, the answering of any statement of facts;

(d)

the admission of any facts or documents;

(e)

the discovery or further discovery of any documents;

(f)

the admission in evidence of any documents;

(g)

the mode in which evidence is to be given at the final hearing;

(h)

the taking and recording of any evidence before the final hearing, including the appointment of an examiner or, in Scotland, a commissioner for that purpose;

(i)

the reference to the Court for determination in a summary way of any issue arising in relation to any agreement to which the notice of reference applies;

(j)

the disposal of a preliminary point of law (including, in Scotland, any preliminary question of relevancy or sufficiency of specification arising on the pleadings);

(k)

an investigation of the cost incurred by any respondent (or, as the case may be, any person or association represented by a representative respondent) in producing or supplying any goods or in applying any process of manufacture to goods, or in supplying any services, and the manner in which the result of such investigation is to be brought before the Court at the final hearing;

(l)

the consolidation of the proceedings with any other proceedings pending before the Court in the same part of the United Kingdom;

(m)

the place and date of the final hearing.