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Commercial Litigation UK
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May 08, 2024
South Africa Immune To Sunken WWII Silver Salvage Claim
Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that South Africa has sovereign immunity against a salvage repayment claim from a company that recovered around $43 million worth of silver bullion from a cargo ship sunk during the Second World War.
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May 07, 2024
Climate Cases Haven't Hurt Oil, Gas Credit Quality, S&P Says
Climate change litigation has skyrocketed over the past 10 years, increasing climate litigation risk, but the credit quality of the oil and gas sector has remained unaffected, S&P Global Ratings concluded in a report published Tuesday.
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May 07, 2024
Uniper Looks To Nix Russian Court's Anti-Arbitration Order
German energy company Uniper has appealed a Russian court ruling threatening a multibillion euro fine if it continues to pursue an arbitration claim in Sweden that accuses the Russian company Gazprom of reneging on a contract to deliver gas, the company said Tuesday.
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May 07, 2024
Lawmakers Told To Fix 'Abusive' County Court System
Ongoing delays in the county courts are "abusive" to vulnerable litigants who are forced to abandon their cases amid a lack of resources, a London academic told a parliamentary committee Tuesday.
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May 07, 2024
Solicitor Faces Tribunal Over Asking Client For Sexual Images
A solicitor is facing a disciplinary tribunal over allegations that he duped a vulnerable client into sending him sexually explicit images of herself by claiming he needed them to prevent her ex-husband from posting them as revenge porn.
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May 07, 2024
Black Teacher Fired For Covering Up CCTV Of Fight
A teacher lost his race discrimination claims against his former employer, after a tribunal ruled that his bosses' decision to fire him was due purely to his conduct and the fact he covered up a CCTV camera during a classroom fight.
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May 07, 2024
Moderna Says Pledge Didn't Waive COVID Vaccine Patent Rights
Moderna and Pfizer questioned expert witnesses on U.S. federal law on Tuesday in their London court battle over whether Moderna is bound by its pledge not to enforce its COVID-19 vaccine patent rights against those making vaccines to combat the virus during the pandemic.
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May 07, 2024
Businessman Asks Top Court To Block £19M UAE Debt Claim
A businessman's family took its fight with a UAE bank to Britain's highest court Tuesday over an alleged £19 million ($24 million) debt, arguing that the lender should not be allowed to collect on debts he says are illegitimate and a result of fraud.
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May 07, 2024
Iceland Supermarket Hit With Kebab Co.'s TM Claim
A kebab meat supplier has accused frozen food supermarket Iceland of using the trademark for its logo on several of its food items, even after the company stopped supplying the shop with its own products.
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May 07, 2024
Spacey To Face UK Civil Trial Over Sex Assault Claim
Kevin Spacey successfully bid to overturn a default judgment against him at a London court on Tuesday — but the actor now faces a trial to fight off a man's £457,000 ($574,000) sexual assault claim.
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May 07, 2024
Court Of Appeal To Hear Secret Judicial Appointment Case
The Court of Appeal will hear a judge's challenge to a secretive part of the judicial appointment process that critics argue hinders efforts to diversify the bench, the GMB Union said on Tuesday.
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May 07, 2024
Plans To Expand Public Access To Court Docs 'Go Too Far'
Proposals to radically expand access for members of the public to court documents risk disproportionately burdening court staff and lawyers with work and could lead to additional costs, legal experts have said.
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May 07, 2024
Regeneron Hit With Eye Medicine Patent Challenge In UK
A biosimilars specialist and its licensing partner have challenged the validity of Regeneron's U.K. eye medicine patents amid their plans to market an alternative version, telling a London court that the medicine lacks inventiveness and is not worthy of protection.
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May 07, 2024
Apple Seeks To Block 'Hopeless' £853M Battery Class Action
Apple urged an appeals court on Tuesday to allow it to challenge a £853 million ($1 billion) proposed class action that accuses it of concealing problems with batteries in the phones of 24 million customers, arguing there is no evidence to support the "hopeless" claim.
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May 07, 2024
Bus Driver Gets £13K For Unfair Dismissal During Pandemic
A London bus driver who did not turn up to work for almost six months following the outbreak of COVID-19 has been awarded £13,400 ($16,810) after he was unfairly dismissed by his employer.
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May 03, 2024
Gov't Emission-Cutting Plan Falls Short In Court Again
Environmental campaigners on Friday successfully challenged the U.K. government's revised strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, after a London court ruled that a minister approved the plan with a "mistaken understanding" that it would achieve its environmental targets.
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May 03, 2024
Headmaster, Teacher To Face Coworker's Discrimination Claim
An appeals tribunal has ruled that the headmaster and former colleague of a primary school teacher are both individually on the hook for her disability discrimination claims because an earlier tribunal wrongly found the discrimination needed to be deliberate.
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May 03, 2024
Ex-Post Office Lawyer Denies Concealing IT Bug From Court
A Post Office lawyer was told of a bug in the accounting system used to prosecute an innocent sub-postmistress days before her trial but did not disclose this to the court, according to documents submitted Friday to the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
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May 03, 2024
Political Aide Asks Tribunal For Damages Over Unfair Sacking
A former Labour Party staff member argued for more than £200,000 ($250,000) in damages on Friday after she won her tribunal claim alleging that the MP she worked for had fired her after she blew the whistle on misconduct that included antisemitism.
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May 03, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
The past week in London has seen rapper Ivorian Doll hit with a copyright claim, private members club Aspinalls file a claim against a Saudi sheikh, and Motorola Solutions file a claim against the British government on the heels of its dispute over losing a £400 million ($502 million) government contract. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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May 03, 2024
Arts Charity Sues Over Queen's Holographic Portrait
An arts charity has sued an artist for infringing the copyright it owns in a series of portraits it commissioned of the queen, claiming that he owes the organization £100,000 ($125,500) and substantial fees from unlicensed sales.
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May 03, 2024
Frasers Group Drops €50M Case Against Morgan Stanley
Retail giant Frasers Group PLC has withdrawn its €50 million ($54 million) legal claim in London against Morgan Stanley over a margin call of almost $1 billion on Hugo Boss stock options, the bank said Friday.
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May 03, 2024
Cable Makers Must Face Class Action From UK Energy Customers
Britain's antitrust court gave the go-ahead Friday for the former director of the U.K. gas regulator to lead a class action for millions of electricity customers in Britain against manufacturers of high-voltage power cables that are accused of fixing prices.
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May 02, 2024
Whistleblower Claims Would 'Destroy' Autonomy, GC Was Told
Autonomy's former U.S. general counsel testified Thursday in the criminal fraud trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that the company's chief operating officer didn't want a whistleblower's claims to get into court, telling him that while the "law" was on their side, "the facts look bad" and would "destroy Autonomy."
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May 02, 2024
Mastercard Appeals Jurisdiction Ruling In £10B Class Action
Mastercard argued to a London appellate court Thursday that a £10 billion ($12.5 billion) class action over its swipe fees should be governed by the law of the jurisdiction covering the bank that processed the payment, rather than the jurisdiction of the customers who suffered the loss.
Expert Analysis
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AI Is Outpacing IP Law Frameworks
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.
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Tracing The History Of LGBTQ+ Rights In The Workplace
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.
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Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests
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.
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Pension Scheme Ruling Elucidates Conversion Issues
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.
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New Fraud Prevention Offense May Not Make Much Difference
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.
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Aldi Design Infringement Case Highlights Assessment Issues
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.
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Generative AI Raises IP, Data Protection And Contracts Issues
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.
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Decoding UK Case Law On Anti-Suit Injunctions
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.
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Litigation Funding Implications Amid Post-PACCAR Disputes
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.
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EU Product Liability Reforms Represent A Major Shakeup
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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Zimbabwe Ruling Bolsters UK's Draw As Arbitration Enforcer
An English court's recent decision in Border Timbers v. Zimbabwe, finding that state immunity was irrelevant to registering an arbitration award, emphasizes the U.K.'s reputation as a creditor-friendly destination for award enforcement, say Jon Felce and Tulsi Bhatia at Cooke Young.
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Building Safety Ruling Offers Clarity On Remediation Orders
The First-tier Tribunal's recent decision in Triathlon Homes v. Stratford Village Development, holding that it was just and equitable to award a remediation contribution order, will undoubtedly encourage parties to consider this recovery route for building defects more seriously, say lawyers at Simmons and Simmons.
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How AI Inventorship Is Evolving In The UK, EU And US
While the U.K. Supreme Court's recent decision in Thaler v. Comptroller-General is the latest in a series of decisions by U.K., U.S. and EU authorities that artificial intelligence systems cannot be named as inventors in patents, the guidance from these jurisdictions suggests that patents may be granted to human inventors that use AI as a sophisticated tool, say lawyers at Mayer Brown.
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EU Report Is A Valuable Guide For Data Controllers
The European Data Protection Board recently published a study of cases handled by national supervisory authorities where uniform application of the General Data Protection Regulation was prioritized, providing data controllers with arguments for an adequate response to manage liability in case of a breach and useful insights into how security requirements are assessed, say Thibaut D'hulst and Malik Aouadi at Van Bael.
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UK Court Ruling Reinforces CMA's Info-Gathering Powers
An English appeals court's recent decision in the BMW and Volkswagen antitrust cases affirmed that the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority can request information from entities outside the U.K., reinstating an important implement in the CMA's investigative toolkit, say lawyers at White & Case.