Commercial Litigation UK

  • September 25, 2024

    Barry Manilow Sued By Hipgnosis Over Sony Royalties

    Music rights heavyweight Hipgnosis has sued Barry Manilow in London for allegedly failing to pay it royalties after Sony Records paid the American singer for his recordings, violating a more than $7.5 million deal that saw Hipgnosis acquire his catalog of 917 songs.

  • September 25, 2024

    HSF, BAT Prove EU Wrongly Denied Access To Tobacco Data

    Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and a British American Tobacco unit on Wednesday scored partial victories when a European Union court ruled that officials wrongly withheld certain data contributing to the bloc's decision to tighten regulations on heated tobacco.

  • September 25, 2024

    Music Rights Collective Fights Bands' Antitrust Claim

    The Performing Right Society has denied abusing a dominant market position by imposing fees and requirements on artists, hitting back at a claim by three rock bands and their rights management company.

  • September 25, 2024

    Pump Court Can't Keep £2.75M Embezzlement Case Private

    A London judge refused Wednesday to hear a case about the embezzlement of £2.75 million ($3.67 million) in barrister fees in private, ruling that the interests of open justice trumped those of Pump Court Chambers.

  • September 25, 2024

    Foster Carer Wrongfully Dismissed Over Unreported Incident

    A home care provider wrongfully fired a project manager for failing to report an incident involving a disabled adult, an employment tribunal ruled, saying there was no policy prohibiting the use of physical restraint.

  • September 25, 2024

    Pfizer, BioNTech Get New Shot To Ax Moderna's MRNA Patent

    Pfizer and BioNTech have won another shot at challenging the validity of one of Moderna's key mRNA vaccines as a judge ruled Wednesday that their appeal had a reasonable prospect of success.

  • September 25, 2024

    Crypto-Investors Can't Appeal Parts Of £10B Class Action

    The Competition Appeal Tribunal has denied crypto-investors permission to challenge its decision to dismiss parts of their claim over the approval of a £9.9 billion ($13 billion) collective action against Binance and other trading platforms.

  • September 25, 2024

    TSB Wins Early Round In £800M 'Mortgage Prisoners' Case

    A group of former Northern Rock customers has lost the initial round of an £800 million ($1.1 billion) group action against TSB Bank PLC, as a London court ruled on Wednesday that the lender that bought their loans did not breach their mortgage contracts.

  • September 24, 2024

    Ukraine Oil Co. Says Russia Can't Buy Time In $5B Award Suit

    Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company has asked a D.C. federal court not to pause its lawsuit to enforce a $5 billion arbitral award against Russia while set-aside proceedings in the Netherlands play out, arguing that the Kremlin is just stalling.

  • September 24, 2024

    Pilates Co. Stretches Patent Campaign To ITC

    A San Francisco pilates equipment maker has persuaded the U.S. International Trade Commission to hear its patent infringement case against an assortment of companies that one of its lawyers calls "Chinese knockoff artists."

  • September 24, 2024

    Apple, Amazon Say Funding Sinks £500M Price Fixing Claim

    Apple and Amazon urged a London tribunal on Tuesday to dismiss a consumer advocate's £500 million ($669.3 million) price fixing class action, arguing that her funding agreements disqualify her from representing the class.

  • September 24, 2024

    Axed Exec Can Fight £148K Costs After Losing Tribunal Claim

    A London appeals judge on Tuesday handed the sacked finance director of a toymaker a shot at cutting the £147,600 ($197,600) total costs a tribunal awarded against him following his failed unfair dismissal claim.

  • September 24, 2024

    Police Sergeant Wins £1.1M In Disability Discrimination Case

    A tribunal has ordered a police force to pay a former sergeant more than £1.1 million ($1.5 million) for forcing her to quit when it withdrew permission to run a hobby business that helped her cope with work stress and PTSD.

  • September 24, 2024

    Barrister Faces Tribunal Over Drinking Beer Before Trial

    The watchdog for English barristers told a disciplinary tribunal on Tuesday that a lawyer behaved in a way that is likely to undermine his integrity by drinking a pint of beer before prosecuting a criminal case in court.

  • September 24, 2024

    Water Firms Say £800M Sewage Case Is Unfit For Class Action

    Six water companies argued before Britain's antitrust tribunal on Thursday that an £800 million ($1 billion) claim accusing them of underreporting sewage spills should not be certified as a class action, asserting that their status as "statutory monopolists" exempts them from competition law.

  • September 24, 2024

    Warehouse Worker Called 'Scum' Wins Discrimination Case

    A warehouse operator for online retailer The Hut who was told that she was "dirty scum" after sitting on a trolley to tie a shoelace, was harassed and faced direct discrimination against as a woman, an employment tribunal has ruled.

  • September 24, 2024

    Union Lawyer Wins Appeal Over Whistleblowing Email

    A tribunal wrongly tossed an employment solicitor's claim of victimization against a trade union after mistakenly ruling that the lawyer had not met the required burden of proof, a London appeals judge has ruled.

  • September 24, 2024

    UK's Courts Become Fertile Ground For Climate Activists

    Litigation over a changing climate is growing in popularity, a study has shown, and recent rulings have set significant precedents. Here, Law360 meets some of the lawyers in London involved in the fight.

  • September 23, 2024

    MPs Call On Asda Bosses To Settle Equal Pay Dispute

    Nearly 160 members of Parliament have called on the owner of British supermarket giant Asda Stores Ltd. to settle the chain's ongoing equal-pay claim with over 60,000 retail staff members, the union representing the workers announced Monday.

  • September 23, 2024

    Online Gambling Co. Must Publicize It Plagiarized Rival's Code

    A London judge ordered an online gambling software developer on Monday to publicize that it had plagiarized copyrighted code when producing products which competed with the online betting game Slingo.

  • September 23, 2024

    Redrow Sues Contractor For £11M Over Fire-Risk Defects

    Redrow has sued construction company Kier for £11 million ($14.7 million) over fire-safety issues that left a housing development unfit to live in that the home builder discovered following investigations carried out after the Grenfell Tower disaster.

  • September 23, 2024

    7 Questions For Ashurst White-Collar Partner Judith Seddon

    Judith Seddon, a partner at Ashurst LLP, made her mark by working on major cases arising from the 2008 financial crisis. Here, she sits down with Law360 to talk about her career, trends in white-collar work and how she ended up in criminal law entirely by accident.

  • September 23, 2024

    Bolt Drivers Felt 'Big Brother Was Watching' Ex-Head Admits

    The former U.K. general manager of Bolt told a tribunal on Monday that he accepted that the ride hailing app made drivers feel like "Big Brother was watching them," because of the data it collected on their performance.

  • September 23, 2024

    Consumers Seek Class Status For £800M Sewage Spill Claim

    An environmental consultant told Britain's antitrust tribunal Monday that a landmark £800 million ($1 billion) claim by millions of customers who allege six water companies misled regulators by underreporting spills should be allowed to go ahead as the first environmental class action in the U.K.

  • September 23, 2024

    State Immunity Bars Embassy Staff From Suing Kuwait

    An academic adviser cannot sue the Kuwaiti government for unfair dismissal, race, sex or age discrimination after an employment tribunal ruled that the Middle Eastern country benefited from state immunity.

Expert Analysis

  • Review Of EU Cross-Border Merger Regs' Impact On Irish Cos.

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    Looking back on the year since the European Union Mobility Directive was transposed into Irish law, enabling Irish and European Economic Area limited liability companies to participate in cross-border deals, it is clear that restructuring options available to Irish companies with EU operations have significantly expanded, say lawyers at Matheson.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: Spanish Assets At Risk Abroad

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    The recent seizure of a portion of London Luton Airport after an English High Court ruling is the latest installment in a long-running saga over Spain’s failure to honor arbitration awards, highlighting the complexities involved when state-owned enterprises become entangled in disputes stemming from their government's actions, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square Chambers.

  • Comparing Apples To Oranges In EPO Claim Interpretation

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    A referral before the Enlarged Board of Appeal could fundamentally change the role that descriptions play in claims interpretation at the European Patent Office, altering best drafting practices for patent applications construed there, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • A Look At UK, EU And US Cartel Enforcement Trends

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    The European Union, U.K. and U.S. competition agencies' recently issued joint statement on competition risks in generative artificial intelligence demonstrates increased cross-border collaboration on cartel investigations, meaning companies facing investigations in one jurisdiction should anticipate related investigations in other jurisdictions, say lawyers at Latham & Watkins.

  • Testing The Limits Of English Courts' Pro-Arbitration Stance

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    Although the Court of Appeal recently upheld a $64 million arbitration award in Eternity Sky v. Zhang, the judgment offers rare insight into when the English courts’ general inclination to enforce arbitral awards may be outweighed by competing policy interests such as consumer rights, say Declan Gallivan and Peter Morton at K&L Gates.

  • What Green Claims Directive Proposal Means For Businesses

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    With the European Union’s recent adoption of a general approach to the proposed Green Claims Directive, which will regulate certain environmental claims and likely be finalized next year, companies keen to publicize their green credentials have even more reason to tread carefully, say Marcus Navin-Jones and Juge Gregg at Crowell & Moring.

  • EU Merger Control Concerns Remain After ECJ Illumina Ruling

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    The recent European Court of Justice judgment in Illumina-Grail is a welcome check on the commission's power to review low-threshold transactions, but with uncertainty persisting under existing laws and discretion left to national regulators, many pitfalls in European Union merger control remain, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.

  • £43M Legal Bill Case Shows Courts' View On Exchange Rates

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    A recent Court of Appeal decision declined to change the currency used for payment of the Nigerian government's legal bill, aligning with British courts' consensus that they should not be concerned with how fluctuating exchange rates might benefit one party over another, says Francis Kendall at Kain Knight.

  • Examining The State Of Paccar Fixes After General Election

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    Following the U.K. Supreme Court's Paccar decision last year, which made many litigation funding agreements for opt-out collective actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal unenforceable, the judiciary will likely take charge in implementing any fixes — but the general election has created uncertainty, says Ben Knowles at Clyde & Co.

  • EU Reports Signal Greenwashing Focus For Financial Sector

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    Reports from the European Supervisory Authorities on enforcement of sustainability information, plus related guidance issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority, represent a fundamental change in how businesses must operate to maintain integrity and public trust, say Amilcare Sada and Matteo Fanton at A&O Shearman.

  • Takeaways From UPC's Amgen Patent Invalidity Analysis

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    The Unified Patent Court Central Division's decision in Regeneron v. Amgen to revoke a patent for lack of inventive step is particularly clear in its reasoning and highlights the risks to patentees of the new court's central revocation powers, say Jane Evenson and Caitlin Heard at CMS.

  • GDPR 6 Years On: Key Points From EU Report

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    The European Commission’s recent report on the General Data Protection Regulation is clearly positive, concluding that it has brought benefits to both individuals and businesses, but stakeholders are still awaiting essential guidelines on scientific research and important business concerns remain, say Thibaut D'hulst and Malik Aouadi at Van Bael & Bellis.

  • UK Mandatory ADR Push Renews Mediation Standards Focus

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    In the wake of a Court of Appeal decision last year allowing courts to mandate alternative dispute resolution, the push toward mandatory ADR has continued with the aim of streamlining dispute resolution and reducing costs, say Ned Beale and Edward Nyman at Hausfeld.

  • 2 UK Rulings Highlight Persistent Push Payment Fraud Issues

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    Two recent High Court decisions, Larsson v. Revolut and Terna DOO v. Revolut, demonstrate that authorized push payment fraud continues to cause headaches for consumers and financial institutions alike, and with forthcoming mandatory reimbursement requirements, more APP fraud litigation can be expected, say lawyers at Charles Russell.

  • Decision Shows Cost Consequences Of Rejecting Mediation

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    An English county court's recent first-instance decision in Conway v. Conway & Meek, which imposed a reduction in costs due to what the judge saw as the defendants' unreasonable refusal to consider mediation, underscores a growing judicial willingness to promote mediation through cost sanctions, say Gerard Kelly and Gearoid Carey at Mason Hayes.

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