Commercial Litigation UK

  • October 10, 2024

    Law Firm Owner Faces SDT Over Conflict Of Interest

    A law firm owner has been referred to a disciplinary tribunal to face allegations that he created a risk of a conflict of interest by acting for one client in a financial dispute with another client of the firm, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

  • October 10, 2024

    Advisers Say Council's 'Extreme' Risk Appetite Lost It £20M

    Laven Advisors LLP has denied that one of its representatives made fraudulent misrepresentations about high-risk bonds to an English local authority, claiming the £20 million ($26.1 million) investment loss incurred by the council was a result of its own "extreme" risk appetite.

  • October 09, 2024

    Bank Of Scotland Forced £18.5M Hotel Asset Sale, Court Hears

    The Bank of Scotland acted in bad faith by forcing a high-end hotel group it partly owns to sell valuable premises at a reduced price, a lawyer for the hospitality chain said on the first day of trial Wednesday.

  • October 09, 2024

    Litigation Funder Sues After-The-Event Insurer For £61M

    A legal loans company has sued an insurer for around £61.4 million ($80.3 million) over its alleged failure to pay out under a litigation funding arrangement.

  • October 09, 2024

    State Immunity Blocks Harassment Case Against Ambassador

    The former advisor to Ivory Coast's U.K. ambassador cannot bring claims of unfair dismissal and sexual harassment against a government unit after an employment tribunal ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

  • October 09, 2024

    Nigerians Fight 'All-Or-Nothing' Ruling In Shell Oil Spill Case

    Lawyers representing thousands of Nigerian villagers urged the Court of Appeal on Wednesday to reverse a ruling that requires them to prove that Shell is responsible for all the chronic oil pollution in their claim against the energy giant.

  • October 09, 2024

    Tech Co. Denies Claim That Plasma Reactor Was Never Built

    A developer of graphene-based materials has denied misusing money that a Chinese businessman invested in the British company in the belief that it would build a so-called plasma reactor.

  • October 09, 2024

    Law Firms Sued For Botched Advice In £5M Ponzi Scheme

    Property investors have claimed two law firms failed to warn them of the dangers of sinking their savings into a building project that turned out to be an alleged £5.4 million ($7 million) Ponzi scheme.

  • October 09, 2024

    Mozambique Targets Heirs Over 'Tuna Bond' Bribery Award

    Mozambique urged a London court on Wednesday to hold the heirs of shipbuilding magnate Iskandar Safa liable for the French-Lebanese billionaire's involvement in a bribery scheme as the country seeks to enforce a $1.9 billion damages award.

  • October 09, 2024

    London University Careers Director Loses Equal Pay Claim

    A tribunal has ruled that a London university did not pay a female director less than her male counterparts based on her sex — but the judge hinted that a fresh claim based on a more recent time period might succeed.

  • October 08, 2024

    Poland Must Pay $330M In Coal Mining Fight

    Australian critical minerals company GreenX Metals said Tuesday that it's won some $330 million following four years of arbitration against Poland after the country blocked two of its coal mining projects.

  • October 08, 2024

    AI And Geopolitics Top Concerns For Employers In 2024

    British businesses are early adopters of artificial intelligence, especially in recruitment and human resources, but a dearth of policies about how to use the technology in the workplace leaves companies at risk of discrimination and data privacy claims, Littler's annual survey of European employers published on Wednesday shows.

  • October 08, 2024

    Pfizer And BioNTech Get CureVac MRNA Patent Chucked

    Pfizer and BioNTech won their bid to scrap two CureVac patents Tuesday, after a London judge held that the gene therapy-related invention was missing key information that would merit protection.

  • October 08, 2024

    Shell Says Too Late For Expansion Of Oil Spill Claim

    Shell looked to convince the Court of Appeal Tuesday that lawyers representing thousands of Nigerian citizens are too late to try to extend the number of oil spills resulting from its operations that it could be held liable for harming communities.

  • October 08, 2024

    Eversheds Recruits Tax Disputes Partner From RPC

    Eversheds Sutherland announced it has added a regulatory and tax disputes partner to its London office from Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP.

  • October 15, 2024

    Essex Court Chambers Gains Arbitration Pro From 3VB

    An international arbitration barrister has joined Essex Court Chambers from 3 Verulam Buildings to boost its offerings in investment treaty claims and other complex cases.

  • October 08, 2024

    SocGen Bids To Force €140M Clifford Chance Case To France

    Societe Generale SA relaunched its fight on Tuesday to force its €140 million ($154 million) negligence case against Clifford Chance LLP out of England, arguing before the Court of Appeal that it should be heard in France.

  • October 08, 2024

    Closed Firm Parrott & Coales Ordered To Pay Ex-Staffer £7K

    An employment tribunal has ordered shuttered Metamorph Group law firm Parrott & Coales LLP to pay £7,689 ($10,074) to a former employee it made redundant after the regulator of solicitors stepped in to close the business.

  • October 08, 2024

    Ex-F1 Boss Accepted £57M Bond Risk, HSBC Says

    HSBC has denied giving ex-Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan negligent investment advice that lost him £5.5 million ($7.2 million), claiming he was an experienced investor who knew the risks.

  • October 08, 2024

    Bratz Maker Accused Of Trying To 'Kill' Rival In £130M IP Claim

    Toy giant MGA Entertainment Inc. "killed" a startup it saw as a rival by blacklisting it with U.K. retailers and making baseless threats of patent infringement litigation, a lawyer for the failed emerging company told a court Tuesday.

  • October 08, 2024

    Ex-Chelsea Owner Says Helicopter Murder Story Hurt His Rep

    Ken Bates, the former owner of Chelsea FC, accused a motor-sport journalist of "character assassination" in a London court on Tuesday, alleging the reporter had falsely accused him of murdering business rivals, multiple sophisticated frauds and tax evasion.

  • October 08, 2024

    Wirecard Loses £12M Fraud Claim Against Greybull Capital

    Greybull Capital has defeated an £11.8 million ($15.5 million) fraud claim brought by Wirecard's insolvency administrator, which alleges that the private equity company lied about the source of money injected into Monarch Airlines a year before the carrier collapsed.

  • October 08, 2024

    Pfizer Gets GSK Patents For RSV Jab Axed In UK

    A London judge has granted Pfizer's bid to nix two patents protecting GSK's blockbuster vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus, blocking GSK's future infringement claims a month after launching its own jab in the U.K.

  • October 08, 2024

    Astellas Beats Challenges To Blockbuster Cancer Patent

    Pharmaceutical giant Astellas persuaded a London court on Tuesday to spare vital patent protections for its blockbuster prostate cancer therapeutic Xtandi, rebuffing a series of challenges attempting to clear the way for generic variants.

  • October 08, 2024

    Broker, Property Firm Settle In £2M Fire Insurance Dispute

    An insurance broker has reached a settlement in its attempt to pull a property management company into litigation brought by an investor seeking an insurance payout to cover the costs of rebuilding two properties tied to a fire in Glasgow.

Expert Analysis

  • BT Case May Shape UK Class Action Landscape

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    The first opt-out collective action trial commenced in Le Patourel v. BT in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal last month, regarding BT's abuse of dominance by overcharging millions of customers, will likely provide clarification on damages and funder returns in collective actions, which could significantly affect the class action regime, say lawyers at RPC.

  • Key Points From EC Economic Security Screening Initiatives

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    Lawyers at Herbert Smith analyze the European Commission's five recently announced initiatives aimed at de-risking the EU's trade and investment links with third countries, including the implementation of mandatory screening mechanisms and extending coverage to investments made by EU companies that are controlled subsidiaries of non-EU investors.

  • Following The Road Map Toward Quantum Security

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    With the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent publication of a white paper on a quantum-secure financial sector, firms should begin to consider the quantum transition early — before the process is driven by regulatory obligations — with the goal of developing a cybersecurity architecture that is agile while also allowing for quantum security, say lawyers at Cleary.

  • Why EU Ruling On Beneficial Ownership May Affect The UK

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    Following the EU judgment in Sovim v. Luxembourg that public access to beneficial ownership information conflicts with data protection rights, several British overseas territories and dependencies have recently reversed their commitment to introduce unrestricted access, and challenges to the U.K.’s liberal stance may be on the cards, says Rupert Cullen at Allectus Law.

  • Opinion

    Labour Should Reconsider Its Discrimination Law Plans

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    While the Labour Party's recent proposals allowing equal pay claims based on ethnicity and disability, and introducing dual discrimination, have laudable intentions and bring some advantages, they are not the right path forward as the changes complicate the discrimination claim process for employees, say Colin Leckey and Tarun Tawakley at Lewis Silkin.

  • AI Is Outpacing IP Law Frameworks

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    In Thaler v. Comptroller-General, the U.K. Supreme Court recently ruled that artificial intelligence can't be an inventor, but the discussion on the relationship between AI and intellectual property law is far from over, and it's clear that technology is developing faster than the legal framework, says Stephen Carter at The Intellectual Property Works.

  • Tracing The History Of LGBTQ+ Rights In The Workplace

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    Pride History month is a timely reminder of how recent developments have shaped LGBTQ+ employees' rights in the workplace today, and what employers can do to ensure that employees are protected from discrimination, including creating safe workplace cultures and promoting allyship, say Caitlin Farrar and Jessica Bennett at Farrer.

  • Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests

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    In Wilson v. Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal recently found that the regulator's rejection of a remote work request was justified, highlighting for employers factors that affect flexible work request outcomes, while emphasizing that individual inquiries should be considered on the specific facts, say Frances Rollin, Ella Tunnell and Kerry Garcia at Stevens & Bolton.

  • Pension Scheme Ruling Elucidates Conversion Issues

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    In Newell Trustees v. Newell Rubbermaid UK Services, the High Court recently upheld a pension plan's conversion of final salary benefits to money purchase benefits, a welcome conclusion that considered several notable issues, such as how to construe pension deeds and when contracts made outside scheme rules can determine benefits, say Ian Gordon and Jamie Barnett at Gowling.

  • New Fraud Prevention Offense May Not Make Much Difference

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    By targeting only large organizations, the Economic Crime Act's new failure to prevent fraud offense is striking in that, despite its breadth, it will affect so few companies, and is therefore unlikely to help ordinary victims, says Andrew Smith at Corker Binning.

  • Aldi Design Infringement Case Highlights Assessment Issues

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    The forthcoming English Court of Appeal decision in Marks and Spencer v. Aldi, regarding the alleged infringement of design rights, could provide practitioners with new guidance, particularly in relation to the relevant date for assessment of infringement and the weight that should be attributed to certain design elements in making this assessment, say Rory Graham and Georgia Davis at RPC.

  • Generative AI Raises IP, Data Protection And Contracts Issues

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    As the EU's recent agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act has fueled businesses' interest in adopting generative AI tools, it is crucial to understand how these tools utilize material to generate output and what questions to ask in relation to intellectual property, data privacy and contracts, say lawyers at Deloitte Legal.

  • Decoding UK Case Law On Anti-Suit Injunctions

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    The English High Court's forthcoming decision on an anti-suit injunction filed in Augusta Energy v. Top Oil last month will provide useful guidance on application grounds for practitioners, but, pending that ruling, other recent decisions offer key considerations when making or resisting claims when there is an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the contract, says Abigail Healey at Quillon Law.

  • Litigation Funding Implications Amid Post-PACCAR Disputes

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    An English tribunal's recent decision in Neill v. Sony, allowing an appeal on the enforceability of a litigation funding agreement, highlights how the legislative developments on funding limits following the U.K. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Paccar v. Competition Appeal Tribunal may affect practitioners, say Andrew Leitch and Anoma Rekhi at BCLP.

  • EU Product Liability Reforms Represent A Major Shakeup

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    The recent EU Parliament and Council provisional agreement on a new product liability regime in Europe revises the existing strict liability rules for the first time in 40 years by easing the burden of proof to demonstrate that a product is defective, a hurdle that many had previously failed to overcome, say Anushi Amin and Edward Turtle at Cooley.

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