The ruling by the law lords today that price-fixing was not a crime in the UK before the Enterprise Act took effect in 2003 was a significant victory for Ian Norris, the former head of Morgan Crucible.

But lawyers said that it was not nececessarily a knock-out blow for all allegations of price-fixing before 2003.

Jeremy Robinson, senior associate, EU and competition group at Bird & Bird, said: "It remains possible that pre-2003 cases can be still be prosecuted as conspiracy to defraud, if there is an additional element of fraud."

The ruling looked at first sight as though competition authorities had suffered a big blow, he added.

"Britain's cartellists of yesteryear will be able to stay in the country. However cartellists today and tomorrow are not so safe."

Lawyers generally weclomed the ruling. Clare Canning, a litigator with Mayer Brown, said: "It restores faith in the English legal system that it's not selling its businessmen out to American but applying an English construction to our laws instead of bending over to keep the Department of Justice happy."

Eoin O'Shea, a partner at Simmons & Simmons, said: "I think this was a good day for Ian Norris, and a good day for legal certainty."

But Fred Houwen, associate at Reed Smith Richards Butler, said that the judgment was only a partial victory; a judge had still to decide if Mr Norris's extradition on the basis of allegations of obstructing justice were compatible with his rights.

"The judgment is a serious setback for the prosecution and will restrict its ability to pursue cartel cases pre-dating the introduction of the criminal cartel offence."

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