On 17 April 2020, the CAT handed down its preliminary issue judgment on whether the defendant, Creative Scotland, constitutes an undertaking for the purposes of the Competition Act 1998. The issue arose in a claim by Strident Publishing Limited, a small independent book publisher, for an alleged abuse of dominance by Creative Scotland in breach of the Chapter 2 prohibition, by providing “investment finance” to publishers of literary works. Unless Creative Scotland was an undertaking, the Chapter 2 prohibition would not apply. Creative Scotland is the principal public-sector arts funder in Scotland. The CAT determined that the essential nature of Creative Scotland’s activity was the awarding of grants from public funds to support creative activity for the public benefit; while funding for the arts is not as “core” or “essential” as other public functions, it is of sufficient importance to make such a description apposite. The CAT considered that public funding of arts involves the exercise of powers that are “typically those of a public authority”. For this and other reasons, including that Creative Scotland’s powers derived directly from legislation, the CAT held that Creative Scotland did not constitute an undertaking for the purposes of the claim.