Britain’s biggest railfreight operator has said a £25m legal action it faces over anti-competitive pricing is a “historic matter” that has no relation to how it currently conducts business.

EWS, which is owned by Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, faces a claim by rival Freightliner in the competition appeal tribunal for compensation over its behaviour in the coal haulage market between 1996 and 2005. One person involved estimated the value of Freightliner’s claim at £25m.