Commercial Litigation UK

  • 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.

  • June 19, 2025

    E-Commerce Co. Denied 'Extraordinary' $40M Injunction

    An Indian e-commerce company has failed to secure an order to get $40 million it claims to need to complete the purchase of a software business, after a court said it was not prepared to grant the "extraordinary" relief before a trial.

  • June 19, 2025

    Pro Bono Plan Aims To Make CAT Claims Accessible To All

    It might come as a surprise that the U.K.'s venue for high-stakes class actions against some of the world's largest companies is planning a new pro bono scheme. But the Brick Court Chambers antitrust silk running the program told Law360 that she sees a real chance to help smaller players get a fair shot at enforcing their rights under a complex area of law.

  • June 19, 2025

    HMRC Cleared Of Forging Warrant To Seize £80M Mansion

    A businessman has lost his case that claimed the U.K. tax authority forged a warrant used to seize his £80 million ($107 million) mansion over fraud and money laundering charges, with a London court concluding that the warrant was genuine.

  • June 19, 2025

    Chinese National's Job Rejection Tied To Security Clearance

    A Chinese national has lost her claim of race discrimination against a cyber-security firm, with the Employment Tribunal saying the company was within its rights to discontinue her job application because she would be unlikely to receive security clearance.

  • June 19, 2025

    Trafigura Partly Blocks Changes To Gupta's $600M Defense

    Metals trader Prateek Gupta was partly blocked Thursday from making wholesale changes to his defense to a fraud claim worth more than $600 million from Trafigura by a judge who nevertheless permitted alterations that had been agreed and those that would not require disclosure. 

  • June 19, 2025

    AmTrust Wins Disclosure Appeal In £56M Claim-Funding Clash

    A London appeals court said Thursday that AmTrust should be able to see another insurer's communications with two law firms amid a £56 million ($75 million) battle over who should cover the costs of a failed litigation-funding scheme.

  • June 19, 2025

    Royal Mail Must Rehire Postman Fired Over Parking Row

    A tribunal has ordered Royal Mail to rehire a postman and pay him £66,000 ($88,600) after it unfairly sacked him over what bosses felt was "violent" behavior during a parking dispute with a colleague.

  • June 19, 2025

    Pension Trust Denies BCLP's £256K Office Damage Claim

    A pension fund trustee company that owns a Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP office has hit back at claims it caused the firm to lose £256,000 ($344,000) by negligently handling repairs after the building was damaged by strong wind.

  • June 19, 2025

    Google Suffers Setback In Bid To Overturn €4B Antitrust Fine

    Google suffered a blow in its bid to overturn to a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) antitrust fine on Thursday when an adviser to Europe's top court said it had failed to present proper legal grounds to challenge the penalty for unlawful market abuse using its mobile phone operating system.

  • June 18, 2025

    Jurisdiction Up First In $1B Ukraine Bank Nationalization Case

    A more than $1 billion claim asserted against Ukraine by a Luxembourg-based banking group with ties to a Russian oligarch over the nationalization of Sense Bank will have to overcome jurisdictional hurdles before damages will be considered, an international tribunal has ruled.

  • June 18, 2025

    £20M Buybacks Weren't Mainly For Tax Benefit, UK Court Says

    Obtaining a tax advantage wasn't the main purpose of two businessmen arranging £20 million ($26.8 million) in share buybacks, despite that being the effect, so they aren't liable for an anti-avoidance action by HM Revenue & Customs, the U.K. Upper Tribunal said in overturning a lower court's ruling.

  • June 18, 2025

    William Hill Must Pay £68K To Exec Fired For Alleged Assault

    An employment tribunal has ordered William Hill to pay £68,065 ($91,547) to an advertising executive it unfairly fired over a sexual harassment complaint, ruling that the betting giant ignored evidence showing he never put his fingers in a colleague's mouth. 

  • June 18, 2025

    Intesa Sanpaolo Staffer Loses Bid For Reinstatement

    An employee on secondment in London from Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo has lost his bid to be reinstated until his hearing for unfair dismissal, with an employment tribunal finding he is unlikely to win his substantive case and therefore not entitled to reinstatement in the interim.

  • June 18, 2025

    PE Firm Says Forfeiting Tycoon's €1.5M Investment Was Valid

    A private equity firm has denied wrongfully forfeiting car tycoon Peter Waddell's €1.5 million ($1.7 million) investment in the company and alleged the move was "entirely reasonable," given he had failed to meet a request for money as part of the funding deal.

  • June 18, 2025

    Tesco Fights Ruling On Workers' Equal Pay Claim

    Retail giant Tesco urged the Employment Appeal Tribunal to overturn findings in an ongoing equal pay-claim brought against it by female employees, saying a lower tribunal was wrong to use generic training materials and job descriptions in assessing whether certain roles are of equal value.

  • June 18, 2025

    Artist Defends 'Fishrot' Apology Spoof As Free Expression

    An Icelandic artist urged a London appellate judge Wednesday to give him a chance to override a decision that he could not successfully defend against a claim from the country's largest seafood company alleging he created a spoof website to publish a false apology over a bribery scandal.

  • June 18, 2025

    EU Court Affirms Decision To Publicize Pesticide Ingredients

    An agrochemical company lost its appeal at a European court on Wednesday to block the European Food Safety Authority from releasing a confidential list of ingredients in one of its pesticides in the interest of public knowledge.

  • June 18, 2025

    Sellafield Denies Breach In £18M Nuclear Diving Contract Case

    A British nuclear site management company has hit back at claims that it breached procurement rules when it rejected a bid from a U.S. business for an £18 million ($24 million) contract for diving services, denying that it breached transparency requirements.

  • June 18, 2025

    US Biotech Biz Says Rival's Gene Editing Patent Is Invalid

    A U.S. biotech company and two manufacturers have denied they infringed a South Korean rival's gene-editing patent, urging a London court to declare the patent invalid.

  • June 17, 2025

    Ex-Triton Exec Beats Post-Brexit Appeal To Nix Bias Claim

    An appellate tribunal has upheld a ruling that Brexit did not curtail the ability of a former Triton Partners investment adviser to bring discrimination claims against the Swedish private equity firm's executives, allowing him to pursue his claim in the U.K.

Expert Analysis

  • Why Indonesia Feels Frustrated By Airbus Dispute Outcome

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    Although the U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s Airbus bribery investigation achieved a record payout for regulators, Indonesia’s threat to sue for lack of credit for its contribution serves as a reminder of the need to take care when settlements are distributed among investigating partners, says Niall Hearty at Rahman Ravelli.

  • UAE Bank Case Offers Lessons On Enforcing Foreign Rulings

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    The High Court recently clarified in Invest Bank v. El-Husseini that foreign judgment debts may be enforceable in England, despite being unenforceable in their jurisdiction of origin, which should remind practitioners that foreign judgments will be recognized in England if they are final and conclusive in their court of origin, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.

  • 9 Hallmarks Of The New German Class Action Regime

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    By recently adopting a new class action regime, Germany is taking an incremental step toward more collective redress, which may fundamentally change its litigation landscape amid increased European regulatory activity, a growing focus on private enforcement of regulations, and a consumer-friendly German judiciary, say lawyers at Gibson Dunn.

  • Protecting The Arbitral Process In Russia-Related Disputes

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    Four recent High Court and Court of Appeal rulings concerning anti-suit injunction claims illustrate that companies exposed to litigation risk in Russia may need to carefully consider how to best protect their interests and the arbitral process with regard to a Russian counterparty, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • Examining US And Europe Patent Disclosure For AI Inventions

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    As applicants before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office increasingly seek patent protection for inventions relating to artificial intelligence, the applications may require more implementation details than traditional computer-implemented inventions, including disclosure of data and methods used to train the AI systems, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Incontinence Drug Ruling Offers Key Patent Drafting Lessons

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    In a long-awaited decision in Astellas v. Teva and Sandoz, an English court found that the patent for a drug used to treat overactive bladder syndrome had not been infringed, highlighting the interaction between patent drafting and litigation strategy, and why claim infringement is as important a consideration as validity, says George McCubbin at Herbert Smith.

  • RSA Insurance Ruling Clarifies Definition Of 'Insured Loss'

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    A London appeals court's recent ruling in Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance v. Tughans, that the insurer must provide coverage for a liability that included the law firm's fees, shows that a claim for the recovery of fees paid to a firm can constitute an insured loss, say James Roberts and Sophia Hanif at Clyde & Co.

  • Putin Ruling May Have Unintended Sanctions Consequences

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    By widening the scope of control, the Court of Appeal's recent judgment in Mints v. PJSC opens the possibility that everything in Russia could be deemed to be controlled by President Vladimir Putin, which would significantly expand the U.K.'s sanctions regime in unintended ways, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • EPO Decision Significantly Relaxes Patent Priority Approach

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    In a welcome development for patent applicants, a recent European Patent Office decision redefines the way that entitlement to priority is assessed, significantly relaxing the previous approach and making challenges to the right to priority in post-grant opposition proceedings far more difficult, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • Landmark EU Climate Case May Shape Future Disputes

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    The European Court of Human Rights' recent hearing in its first-ever climate change case Agostinho v. Portugal, concerning human rights violation claims due to countries' failure to curb emissions, may develop the law on admissibility and guide future climate disputes before domestic courts, say Stefanie Spancken-Monz and Leane Meyer at Freshfields.

  • Bias Claim Highlights Need For Menopause Support Policies

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    The recent U.K. Employment Tribunal case Rooney v. Leicester City Council, concerning a menopause discrimination claim, illustrates the importance of support policies that should feed into an organization's wider diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging strategies, say Ellie Gelder, Kelly Thomson and Victoria Othen at RPC.

  • UK Case Offers Lessons On Hiring Accommodations

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    The U.K. Employment Appeal Tribunal recently ruled in Aecom v. Mallon that an employer had failed to make reasonable adjustments to an online application for an applicant with a disability, highlighting that this obligation starts from the earliest point of the recruitment process, say Nishma Chudasama and Emily Morrison at SA Law.

  • Shifting From Technical To Clear Insurance Contract Wordings

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    Recent developments on insurance policies, including the Financial Conduct Authority's new consumer duty, represent a major shift for insurers and highlight the importance of drafting policies that actively improve understanding, rather than shift the onus onto the end user, say Tamsin Hyland and Jonathan Charwat at RPC.

  • A Case For The Green Investment Regime Under The ECT

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    The EU and U.K.'s potential plans to exit the Energy Charter Treaty, which has been criticized as protecting fossil fuel investments to the detriment of energy transition, ignore the significant strides taken to modernize the treaty and its ability to promote investment in cleaner energy forms, say Amy Frey and Simon Maynard at King & Spalding.

  • How Employers Can Support Neurodiversity In The Workplace

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    A recent run of cases emphasize employers' duties to make reasonable adjustments for neurodiverse employees under the Equalities Act, illustrating the importance of investing in staff education and listening to neurodivergent workers to improve recruitment, retention and productivity in the workplace, say Anna Henderson and Tim Leaver at Herbert Smith.

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