Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016

If—

a person—

who is a party to the relevant proceedings related to a development; or

who provides direct or indirect financial assistance to a party to any relevant proceedings related to a development, has a commercial competitive interest in the proceedings, or has an associate who has a commercial competitive interest in the proceedings; and

the outcome of the proceedings (including after taking into account any appeal) is that the development, or a development in substantially the same form, may proceed, then the proponent of the development is entitled to recover from the person (the defendant) and, if relevant, from any associate of the defendant, as a debt, an amount equal to the amount of any loss (including economic loss) that can be reasonably assessed as having been suffered by the proponent as a result of delays to the development on account of the proceedings if the court is satisfied that the defendant's sole or predominant purpose in pursuing the proceedings, or for providing financial assistance (as the case may be) was to delay or prevent the development in order to obtain commercial benefit for the defendant or an associate of the defendant.

A court before which proceedings are brought under subsection (1) may, if it considers that it is appropriate to do so, reduce any amount that would otherwise be recoverable under that subsection to take into account—

any delay in the relevant proceedings reasonably attributable to the actions of the proponent of the development or of some other party (other than the defendant, an associate of the defendant or a person who has received direct or indirect financial assistance from the defendant in connection with those proceedings); or

any other matter that it considers relevant in the circumstances of the particular case.

Without in any way limiting the manner in which the purpose of a person may be established for the purposes of subsection (1), a person may be taken to have pursued proceedings, or to have provided financial assistance to a party to proceedings (as the case may be) for a purpose referred to in subsection (1) notwithstanding that, after all the evidence has been considered, the existence of that purpose is ascertainable only by inference from the conduct of the person or of any other person or from other relevant circumstances.