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Commercial Litigation UK
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June 07, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
The past week in London has seen British broadcaster GB News hit with a libel claim by climate activist Dale Vince, MGM take aim at an immersive events company over intellectual property rights to the James Bond franchise, and law firms Stephenson Harwood and Bowen-Morris & Partners tackle a contracts claim by investment adviser Yieldstreet. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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June 07, 2024
Fired NCA Trainee Loses Sex Bias Claim Over Childcare Duty
The National Crime Agency did not discriminate against a former trainee based on his sex by limiting how flexibly he could work in order to look after his two young children, a tribunal has ruled.
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June 07, 2024
Tax Discriminates Against Risky Assets, Dutch Court Says
The Netherlands must compensate investors for a tax on investment income that discriminates against riskier assets by using calculations of fictitious returns, the Dutch Supreme Court said.
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June 07, 2024
Prince Harry Wins Chance To Challenge Security Ruling
Prince Harry has won an opportunity to challenge a ruling by a London judge that the government's decision to downgrade his taxpayer-funded security when he quit his royal duties was not irrational or procedurally unfair, according to a court order published Friday.
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June 06, 2024
Ex-Autonomy CEO, VP Both Cleared In HP Criminal Fraud Trial
A California federal jury on Thursday acquitted former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch and former finance Vice President Stephen Chamberlain of criminal fraud and conspiracy charges following an 11-week trial over allegations that the two conned HP into overpaying billions for the British tech company.
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June 06, 2024
Post Office Board Missed Clues, Former Chair Tells Inquiry
A former chair of the Post Office Ltd. board told the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal on Thursday that the board did not act on a number of "clues" suggesting that the company was wrongly prosecuting innocent subpostmasters.
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June 06, 2024
Autoliv, ZF Must Share Expert Evidence In €734M Cartel Claim
The Court of Appeal has blocked an attempt from two global technology groups to provide separate expert evidence in a €734 million ($799 million) cartel damages claim, finding no material conflict of interest preventing the co-defendants from relying on one joint expert.
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June 06, 2024
Fired Ikea Worker Loses COVID-19 Harassment Claim
An ex-Ikea employee has lost his case that he was unfairly dismissed and harassed over his opposition to COVID-19 safety measures, as an employment tribunal ruled that his beliefs were not challenged, only his behavior.
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June 06, 2024
Solicitor Wins Worker Status In Unfair Dismissal Claim
An employment judge has ruled that a consultant solicitor working on "flexible terms" for a U.K. law firm counts as a worker, rather than being self-employed, in her unfair dismissal claim against the firm.
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June 06, 2024
Patent Trial Over AstraZeneca Unit Soliris Drug Set For 2025
A London judge Thursday agreed to list a quarrel among three pharmaceutical companies over Alexion's patent for a drug that treats rare blood diseases for trial in early 2025, finding there is "some degree of urgency" to resolve the dispute.
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June 06, 2024
Regeneron Sees Infringement In Rivals' Biosimilar Eye Meds
Regeneron has defended the validity of its U.K. eye medicine patents in a London court amid a feud with a biosimilars specialist and its licensing partner, alleging that their plans to market an alternate version will infringe its exclusive right to produce the drug.
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June 06, 2024
Pharma Co. Should Get Hungarian Rebate, ECJ Adviser Says
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk's mandatory payments into the Hungarian health system should reduce the company's tax base for value-added tax payments, an adviser to the European Union's highest court said Thursday.
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June 06, 2024
Stranded Plane Claims Belong In Ukraine, UK Judge Says
A London judge ruled Thursday that a legal battle between insurers and aircraft lessors over planes that have been stranded in Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion should be heard in Ukraine rather than England.
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June 06, 2024
Imam Wins £20K From Mosque Over Religious Harassment
A mosque in northern England must pay its former Sunni imam £20,000 ($25,570) after a tribunal ruled members of the place of worship accused him of following the beliefs of a rival branch of Islam, which left him with no choice but to quit.
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June 06, 2024
Artist Claims Royalties For Queen's Holographic Portrait
The artist behind a holographic portrait of the queen has fought allegations of copyright infringement, accusing the arts charity that commissioned him of exhibiting some other works for over a decade without paying him.
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June 06, 2024
Rwanda Plan Forces Civil Servants To Break Law, Union Says
Civil servants will be forced to violate international human rights law and their workplace code of conduct if the government requires them to process deportation flights to Rwanda against Strasbourg's rulings, a trade union argued at a London court on Thursday.
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June 06, 2024
HMRC Harassed Protesting Staffer With Relocation Ultimatum
HM Revenue and Customs harassed an employee based on her race by asking her to withdraw a discrimination grievance in return for making her transfer to a new office permanent, a tribunal has ruled.
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June 06, 2024
Retailers Filing £1B Data Misuse Class Action Against Amazon
Retailers said Thursday they are set to file a £1 billion ($1.3 billion) class action against Amazon in London, accusing it of illegally misusing their data to boost its sales and profits.
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June 06, 2024
Labour Drops Antisemitism Report Leak Claim On Ex-Staffers
The Labour Party dropped on Thursday its legal claims against five former employees who it said conspired to leak a damning report on how its internal disciplinary body mishandled allegations of antisemitism and undermined its leader at the time, Jeremy Corbyn.
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June 05, 2024
Saudi Investor Bids To Revive Legal Costs Claim Against RLS
A Saudi Arabian property investor urged a London judge Wednesday to revive his claim against a law firm to recover the costs of investigating and litigating an alleged £35 million ($44.6 million) fraud by a former property business partner that settled mid-trial.
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June 05, 2024
Binance Fights To Ax Crypto Investors' £9B Delisting Claim
The cryptocurrency exchange Binance asked a U.K. tribunal on Wednesday to strike out a £9 billion ($11.5 billion) claim brought by investors who say the exchange illegally colluded with other trading platforms to delist the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision cryptocurrency.
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June 05, 2024
Swiss Bank Escapes Investor's Unlawful Conspiracy Claim
Lombard Odier has partially succeeded in blocking the claims of an investor who says the private bank withheld inside information about the merits of a British nanotech company's U.S. legal dispute with Samsung to convince him to buy shares in the company just before its price tanked.
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June 05, 2024
McDonald's Loses 'Big Mac' TM Rights Over Poultry In EU
A European Union court on Wednesday stripped McDonald's of its right to use the "Big Mac" trademark on chicken sandwiches in the bloc, ruling that the fast food giant had failed to put the sign to proper use on poultry products in recent years.
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June 05, 2024
Slater And Gordon Fight Ex-Analyst's Redundancy Appeal
Slater and Gordon LLP challenged on Wednesday an appeal by a former costs analyst, who claims that he was made redundant because he was mentally unwell and wrongly deprived of most of a £20,000 ($25,500) bonus.
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June 05, 2024
Trafigura Settles Nickel Fraud Suit With Reuben Brothers Co.
Trafigura has settled a London legal claim allegedly linked to a major ongoing nickel fraud scandal, the commodities trader confirmed Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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ECHR Ruling May Pave Path For A UK Climate Damage Tort
In light of case law on the interaction between human rights law and common law, the European Court of Human Rights' recent ruling in KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, finding the country at fault for failures to tackle global warming, could tip the scales toward extending English tort law to cover climate change-related losses, say lawyers at Cleary.
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Disciplinary Ruling Has Lessons For Lawyers On Social Media
A recent Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal judgment against a solicitor for online posts deemed antisemitic and offensive highlights the serious sanctions that can stem from conduct on social media and the importance of law firms' efforts to ensure that their employees behave properly, say Liz Pearson and Andrew Pavlovic at CM Murray.
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The Art Of Corporate Apologies: Crafting An Effective Strategy
Public relations challenges often stop companies from apologizing amid alleged wrongdoing, but a recent U.K. government consultation seeks to make this easier, highlighting the importance of corporate apologies and measures to help companies balance the benefits against the potential legal ramifications, says Dina Hudson at Byfield Consultancy.
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What UK Supreme Court Strike Ruling Means For Employers
Although the U.K. Supreme Court recently declared in Mercer v. Secretary of State that part of a trade union rule and employees' human rights were incompatible, the decision will presumably not affect employer engagement with collective bargaining, as most companies are already unlikely to rely on the rule as part of their broader industrial relations strategy, say lawyers at Baker McKenzie.
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Taking Stock Of The Latest Criminal Court Case Statistics
The latest quarterly statistics on the type and volume of cases processed through the criminal court illustrate the severity of the case backlog, highlighting the need for urgent and effective investment in the system, say Ernest Aduwa and Jessica Sarwat at Stokoe Partnership.
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Hugh Grant Case Raises Questions About Part 36 Offers
Actor Hugh Grant's recent decision to settle his privacy suit by accepting a so-called Part 36 offer from News Group — to avoid paying a larger sum in legal costs by proceeding to trial — illustrates how this legal mechanism can be used by parties to force settlements, raising questions about its tactical use and fairness, says Colin Campbell at Kain Knight.
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Accounting For Climate Change In Flexible Working Requests
Although the U.K. government's recent updates to the country's flexible working laws failed to include climate change as a factor for evaluating remote work requests, employers are not prohibited from considering the environmental benefits — or drawbacks — of an employee's request to work remotely, say Jonathan Carr and Gemma Taylor at Lewis Silkin.
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Opinion
New Property Category Not Needed To Regulate Digital Assets
The U.K. Law Commission's exploration of whether to create a third category of property for digital assets is derived from a misreading of historical case law, and would not be helpful in resolving any questions surrounding digital assets, says Duncan Sheehan at the University of Leeds.
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Employer Lessons From Red Bull's Misconduct Investigation
Red Bull’s recent handling of a high-profile investigation into team principal Christian Horner’s alleged misconduct toward a colleague serves as a reminder of the importance of thorough internal grievance and disciplinary processes, and offers lessons for employers hoping to minimize media attention, say Charlotte Smith and Adam Melling at Walker Morris.
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Breaking Down The EPO's Revised Practice Guidelines
The European Patent Office's updated guidelines for examination recently took effect and include significant changes related to the priority right presumption, the concept of plausibility and artificial intelligence, providing invaluable insight on obtaining patents from the office, say lawyers at Finnegan.
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Pharma Remains A Key Focus Of EU Antitrust Enforcement
The recently published European Commission report on pharmaceutical sector competition law illustrates that effective enforcement of EU rules remains a matter of high priority for EU and national authorities, say lawyers at Dechert.
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Employment Tribunal Fee Proposal Raises Potential Issues
The proposal to reintroduce employment tribunal fees in a recent U.K. government consultation poses serious concerns over the right of access to justice, and will only act as a deterrent for claimants and appellants, says Yulia Fedorenko at CM Murray.
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ECHR Climate Rulings Hint At Direction Of Future Cases
Three recent climate rulings from the European Court of Human Rights show the court's tendency toward a more formalistic, hands-off approach to procedural issues but a more hands-on approach to the application of the European Convention on Human Rights, setting the first guiding principles for key issues in EU climate cases, say Stefanie Spancken-Monz and Leane Meyer at Freshfields.
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What UK Energy Charter Treaty Exit Would Mean For Investors
While the U.K.'s recent announcement that it intends to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty is a bold political signal, investor protections will remain in place for a significant period of time, ensuring that an element of certainty and business continuity will remain, say Karel Daele and Jessica Thomas at Taylor Wessing.
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What To Know About The Russia-Stranded Plane Ruling
The High Court's recent decision in Zephyrus Capital Aviation v. Fidelis Underwriting, rejecting reinsurers' U.K. jurisdiction challenges in claims over stranded planes in Russia, has broad implications for cross-border litigation involving exclusive jurisdiction clauses, says Samantha Zaozirny at Browne Jacobson.