Commercial Litigation UK

  • June 24, 2025

    Real-World Views Fair Game In TM Disputes, Top Court Says

    Britain's highest court ruled Tuesday that judges can think about how products will look in the real world when weighing trademark infringement claims, but it agreed with a French footwear company that it didn't tread on sports giant Umbro's diamond logo trademark.

  • June 23, 2025

    App Exec Off Sick With Anxiety From Ukraine War Wins £30K

    An employment tribunal has ordered a cash-for-data app company to pay £29,799 ($39,909) to a former product manager for failing to provide her full wages while she was off sick with anxiety and depression triggered by the war in Ukraine. 

  • June 23, 2025

    Porsche Importer, Dealer Are Sued At CAT Over 'Reseller Ban'

    A premium sports car part reseller has sued two U.K. Porsche subsidiaries, accusing them of abusing their dominant position by refusing to sell vehicle components to independent repairers, Britain's antitrust tribunal said Monday.

  • June 23, 2025

    IBM Trims UK Whistleblower's Claim Of Mistreatment

    An employment tribunal has ruled that a staffer at IBM U.K. cannot sue its parent company because her work as part of a global team did not make it her secondary employer.  

  • June 23, 2025

    Trafigura Beats Dubai Bank Unit's 'Cynical' $21M Fraud Case

    Trafigura on Monday defeated a claim by a subsidiary of Dubai's Rasmala Investment Bank alleging that the commodities trader tricked it into providing $21 million to pay off another company's debts, with a London court ruling the trader was not part of the deception.

  • June 23, 2025

    AstraZeneca's £32M HQ Defect Claim Misguided, Fire Co. Says

    A fire engineering consultancy has denied designing problematic fire-stopping protection at AstraZeneca UK Ltd.'s £1 billion ($1.35 billion) headquarters, and said that the pharmaceutical company's £31.7 million claim is a misconceived attempt to find liability after reaching a settlement with the main building contractor.

  • June 23, 2025

    Luxembourg Lender Sues Urbas For €189M Over Unpaid Debt

    A credit provider has alleged that a Spanish real estate development group owes it more than €189 million ($218 million) over an unpaid loan, and said the group's companies have deliberately misrepresented their payment and debt obligations.

  • June 23, 2025

    UK Basketball Clubs Sue Governing Body Over League Split

    Members of a professional basketball league in Britain are suing the sports governing body in a London court, alleging competition breaches, following what they believe to be the latest development to stop them from operating.  

  • June 23, 2025

    Staffer Can't Ax Amazon's Defense To Russia Tech Sale Claim

    A former Amazon employee on Monday lost his bid to strike out the tech giant's defense to his claims that he was fired for blowing the whistle on alleged sales of its facial recognition technology to Russia.

  • June 23, 2025

    Investors Say Hargreaves Ignored Woodford Fund's Problems

    Thousands of investors who lost out when Neil Woodford's fund collapsed in 2019 have sued asset manager Hargeaves Lansdown, saying the firm kept the fund on its prestigious Wealth List long after it should have known it was headed for administration.

  • June 23, 2025

    Dryrobe Claims Rival's Name Confuses Consumers At TM Trial

    Outdoor clothing brand Dryrobe said a rival's use of the name "D-Robe" might lead to consumers confusing it with its own successful brand, on the first day of a trademark dispute trial on Monday.

  • June 23, 2025

    Campaigners Agree Cost Cap In State Pension Redress Row

    Campaigners said Monday they have agreed to cap legal costs with the Department for Work and Pensions in their fight against the government's decision not to pay compensation for historic failures around women's state pensions.

  • June 23, 2025

    AI-Driven Fake Evidence Could 'Play Havoc' In Legal Disputes

    A recent High Court judgment exposed how nonexistent artificial intelligence-generated citations had been used in legal arguments — but experts say this could be the tip of the iceberg for increasingly sophisticated fake evidence making its way into disputes.

  • June 23, 2025

    Judge Faces Renewed Call For Probe For Bullying Litigants

    An employment judge faces a potential misconduct probe after being accused of a "longstanding pattern" of bullying and intimidation during hearings.

  • June 20, 2025

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Pogust Goodhead face legal action from mining giant BHP Group, Trainline bring a procurement claim against the Department for Transport, Sworders auction house sue Conservative peer Patricia Rawlings, and Nokia hit with a patents claim by Hisense. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • June 20, 2025

    Digital Nomad Co. Seeks Annulment Of EU VAT Rules

    An online short-term rentals company said it's challenging the Council of the European Union in the bloc's top court in a bid to overhaul deemed supplier rules for value-added tax.

  • June 20, 2025

    AstraZeneca Must Give University More Info In IP Rate Battle

    A London judge on Friday ordered AstraZeneca to give the University of Sheffield more information about how the pharma giant sublicensed its patented cancer drug amid the university's claims that AstraZeneca lied to get better rates.

  • June 20, 2025

    Reckitt Denies Ex-VP's £1M Claim, Cites Trade Secret Breach

    Consumer goods company Reckitt has rejected claims that it owes more than £1 million ($1.4 million) to a former senior executive from Russia, arguing that it fired him ahead of the end of his garden leave because he was working with a bidder for part of its business. 

  • June 20, 2025

    Energy Data Co. Can't Shut Off Info Supply To Rival

    The Competition Appeal Tribunal has blocked an energy data supplier from suspending its services to a competitor following an allegation that the move is an abuse of its de facto monopoly over U.K. meter usage data.

  • June 20, 2025

    Managers Blamed For £14M Overrun Win Unfair Firing Case

    Two project managers were unfairly sacked when their chief executive fired them on the spot in a meeting over a project that had gone £14 million ($18.9 million) over budget, but are not entitled to damages, an employment tribunal has ruled. 

  • June 20, 2025

    BHP Sues Claimant Lawyers Amid £36B Dam Disaster Trial

    BHP is suing law firm Pogust Goodhead, which is representing hundreds of thousands of individuals, municipalities and businesses in a £36 billion ($48.5 billion) claim against the Australian mining giant over a dam disaster in Brazil that killed 19 people, according to court records.

  • June 20, 2025

    BBC Confronts AI Biz Perplexity Over Content Scraping

    The BBC said Friday that it has threatened to take legal action against Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, claiming that the company trained its model on the broadcaster's content.

  • June 20, 2025

    Ex-MP Can't Stop £230K Payment To Times For Dropped Libel

    A former Conservative MP can't appeal an order to pay almost £230,000 ($310,000) towards The Times' costs defending his now-dropped defamation claim, as a London court ruled Friday that the discounted figure already factored in the newspaper's misconduct in the case.

  • June 20, 2025

    Shell Can Be Liable Over Oil Spill But 'Legal Barriers' Remain

    Shell can be held liable for damages caused by pollution from illegal refining of stolen oil from its pipelines — but the Nigerian communities suing the energy giant face "significant legal barriers" to succeed at trial, a London judge ruled Friday.

  • June 20, 2025

    India Can't Block UAE Fund's $273M Metals Deal Arbitration

    India lost its bid Friday to fend off a claim that it caused a UAE investment fund to lose $273 million by ending an aluminum production deal, with a London court ruling that an arbitration tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the case.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Duties And Questions To Consider In Expert Witness Selection

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    A spotlight has recently been shone on the role of expert witnesses due to the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, which should remind all parties to take steps to understand what an expert witness is responsible for and what the selection process should look like, says Toby Hunt at HKA.

  • ECJ Cartel Damages Rulings Are Wins For Multinational Cos.

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    Two decisions from the European Court of Justice last month clarifying the limits of the single economic unit doctrine in cartel damages proceedings will help multinational companies anticipate and prepare for litigation within a narrower band of possible jurisdictions, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • Takeaways From EU's 'Pay Or Consent' Advertising Probe

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    Anne-Gabrielle Haie and Charles Whiddington at Steptoe examine key points from the European Commission's recent investigation into Big Tech's use of "pay or consent" advertising models, as well as the European Data Protection Board’s opinion on how such models can comply with EU competition and data protection laws.

  • UK Judgment Could Change Anti-Money Laundering Regimes

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    After the Court of Appeal of England and Wales' determination that criminal property remains criminal property in the hands of its purchaser even if purchased at market value, many businesses could face a new or heightened risk of prosecution for criminality in their supply chains and related money laundering offenses, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: Blasket Win Is A Beacon Of Hope

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    A Belgian court's recent decision in favor of Blasket Renewable Investments, enforcing an arbitral award against the Kingdom of Spain, signals that despite the European Court of Justice's restrictive interpretations, there is judicial support within the European Union for enforcing investors' rights under international arbitration agreements, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.

  • UK Approach To AI Patentability Appears Settled For Now

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    After a High Court ruling upended the status quo last year, the Court of Appeal’s recent decision that Emotional Perception’s artificial neural network is not patentable represents a return to the U.K.’s familiar, albeit often complex, approach to patentability of artificial intelligence technology and computer programs generally, say lawyers at Potter Clarkson.

  • How Digital Markets Act Will Enhance Consumer Protections

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    The Digital Markets Act represents a major shift in U.K. competition and consumer protection law by introducing a new regulatory regime for large digital firms, and by giving the Competition and Markets Authority broader merger investigation powers and a wider enforcement remit for online activities, say lawyers at Cooley.

  • What Steps Businesses Can Take After CrowdStrike Failure

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    Following last month’s global Microsoft platform outage caused by CrowdStrike’s failed security software update, businesses can expect complex disputes over liability resulting from multilayered agreements and should look to their various insurance policies for cover despite losses not stemming from a cyberattack, says Daniel Healy at Brown Rudnick.

  • Drafting Settlement Agreements That Avoid Future Disputes

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    Several recent U.K. rulings highlight the importance of drafting precise settlement agreements to prevent time-consuming and costly disputes over what claims the agreements were meant to cover, says Michelle Radom at Osborne Clarke.

  • Int'l Treaties May Aid Investors Amid UK Rail Renationalization

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    The recently introduced Passenger Railway Services Bill seeks to return British railways to public ownership without compensating affected investors, a move that could trigger international investment treaty protections for obligation breaches, says Philipp Kurek at Signature Litigation.

  • Insurance Rulings Show Court Hesitancy To Fix Policy Errors

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    Two recent Court of Appeal insurance decisions highlight that policyholders can only overcome policy drafting errors and claim coverage if there is a very obvious mistake, emphasizing courts' reluctance to rewrite contract terms that are capable of enforcement, says Aaron Le Marquer at Stewarts.

  • AI Reforms Prompt Fintech Compliance Considerations

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    With the EU Artificial Intelligence Act's Aug. 1 enforcement, and the U.K.'s new plans to introduce AI reforms, fintech companies should consider how to best focus limited resources as they balance innovation and compliance, says Nicola Kerr-Shaw at Skadden.

  • Should Arbitrators Do More To Encourage Settlements?

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    In light of discussions on settlement in arbitration, there is a consensus that arbitrators in English-seated proceedings should play a greater role, but determining the extent of that involvement is difficult, as arbitrators can inadvertently place themselves in a position of potential conflict, say lawyers at Dentons.

  • Irish Businesses Should Act Now To Prepare For EU AI Act

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    Artificial intelligence is increasingly transforming the Irish job market, and proactive engagement with the forthcoming European Union AI Act, a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for Irish businesses, will be essential for Irish businesses to responsibly harness AI’s advantages and to maintain legal compliance, say lawyers at Pinsent Masons.

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