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Commercial Litigation UK
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April 24, 2024
Ex-Autonomy GC Tells Jurors He Wanted To Be 'Helpful' To HP
Autonomy's former U.S. general counsel conceded Wednesday in the criminal trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that he told an HP lawyer he wanted to be as "helpful" as possible to the company as it was investigating Autonomy-related issues that popped up after the Silicon Valley giant purchased the British company, and that he was told he could face liability for his work at Autonomy.
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April 24, 2024
Energy Charter Treaty Backlash Hints At Broader Arbitration Woes
Lawmakers in Europe on Wednesday overwhelmingly consented to the European Union's withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty, adding to an increasing global backlash against investor-state arbitration that was also laid bare in a vote by Ecuadorians decisively rejecting the mechanism this past weekend.
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April 24, 2024
Ex-Yukos Oil Shareholders To Auction Russian Vodka Brands
The Benelux rights to trademarks for 18 Russian vodka brands, including Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya, will go to auction in June in the Netherlands, the former shareholders of Yukos Oil Co. said Wednesday as they sought to enforce arbitral awards now valued at $60 billion.
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April 24, 2024
Oligarch's Family Can't Nix €1.5B Bankruptcy Bid
The widow and a daughter of the late Russian cement oligarch Oleg Bourlakov stumbled in their global legal battle with relatives over his fortune after a London judge declined to stop €1.48 billion ($1.59 billion) bankruptcy proceedings in St. Petersburg.
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April 24, 2024
Post Office GC Didn't Know To Disclose Witness Misled Court
As he gave evidence to an inquiry Wednesday, the Post Office's former general counsel said external law firm Cartwright King didn't tell him that the fact that an expert witness lied to the court when testifying against subpostmasters needed to be disclosed.
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April 24, 2024
Fire And Rehire Justified By Equal Pay Threat, Tesco Argues
Retail giant Tesco argued to the U.K. Supreme Court on Wednesday that its decision to "fire and rehire" warehouse workers on less favorable contracts was justified because keeping its promise of a "permanent" pay supplement could have exposed the company to equal pay claims worth millions of pounds.
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April 24, 2024
Fund Manager Denies Losing Jailed Politician's Wife £8M
A fund manager has denied transferring €28 million ($30 million) from the account of an imprisoned Turkish politician's wife without her permission, claiming she gave written instructions to invest the money in emerging markets.
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April 24, 2024
Network Rail Rejected Pension Expert Due To Age Bias
An employment tribunal has ruled that Network Rail discriminated against an applicant to the pensions team because he was in his mid-50s, saying that the manager processing submissions barely glanced at his curriculum vitae.
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April 24, 2024
Labcorp Prevails Over Software Biz TM Challenge In EU
Labcorp has cleared its path to a trademark over its name in the European Union after a court ruled Wednesday that a German software business can't halt the application based on its earlier "labcore" signs that it has not sufficiently used in recent years.
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April 24, 2024
Boris Becker Settles With Creditors Over Missing Trophies
Boris Becker's creditors have agreed not to chase the multiple Grand Slam tennis champion over the missing trophies he was accused of hiding to dodge paying debts, lawyers for the Wimbledon winner and bankruptcy trustees told a London court Wednesday.
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April 24, 2024
Panasonic Denies 'Illegitimate Pressure' In 4G Patent Fight
Panasonic told a London court Wednesday that a bid by rival Xiaomi to have the Japanese giant's litigation accusing it of infringing standard essential wireless patents in other European courts thrown out is "dead in the water," saying its overseas claims against the company are legitimate.
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April 24, 2024
Keoghs Beats 'Rude' Job Candidate's Discrimination Claim
An employment tribunal has thrown out a race discrimination claim against law firm Keoghs LLP, ruling that it did not treat a Greek national unfairly by rescinding a job offer for his "rude and uncooperative" behavior in an onboarding meeting.
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April 24, 2024
SFO Admits Deleting Osofsky's Phone Amid ENRC Leaks Row
The Serious Fraud Office acknowledged on Wednesday that it "inappropriately" erased the mobile phone of its former director, Lisa Osofsky, during litigation over alleged leaks in what mining giant ENRC told a London court was a "flagrant breach" of its disclosure obligations.
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April 24, 2024
GXO Gets UK All-Clear For £762M Bid For Logistics Biz
GXO Logistics Inc. said Wednesday that the U.K. government has granted national security clearance to its proposed £762 million ($950 million) takeover of British supply-chain group Wincanton PLC.
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April 24, 2024
Marine Tech Co. Fights MoD Unit's 'Inflated' $90M Claim
A South Korean marine navigation business that misused a Ministry of Defence agency's data to make its own products has hit back at the agency's claim for as much as $90 million, alleging it includes jacked-up figures and miscalculations.
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April 24, 2024
AXA, Zurich Deny Liability In £26M Bakery Fire Claim
A group of six insurers has denied that it unlawfully refused to pay out at least £26 million ($32 million) to cover damage and losses caused by a blaze at a bakery, saying the food business did not comply sufficiently with fire procedures to justify a payout.
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April 24, 2024
Law Firm Ordered To Repay Couple £194K For Loan Breach
A court has ordered a law firm to reimburse a married couple at least £194,000 ($241,000) after finding that it had failed to adhere to the terms of two loan agreements the pair provided to help to fund its working capital and cover general business expenses.
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April 24, 2024
IP Firm Can't Take Bid To Block Clients' Case To Top Court
Britain's highest court has rejected a final attempt by Marks & Clerk LLP to block thousands of former clients from bringing a bribery class action over alleged secret commission payments, ruling that the law firm did not put forward any arguable legal challenges that justified an appeal.
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April 23, 2024
Ex-Autonomy Tech Exec Doubted 'Bizarre' $6M Deal, Jury Told
Autonomy's ex-chief technology officer testified Tuesday in the California federal fraud trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that he had concerns about Autonomy's "bizarre" 2010 deal to sell $6 million in repackaged hardware, which prosecutors allege was never delivered and was only used to artificially inflate Autonomy's revenues.
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April 23, 2024
Post Office GC Felt 'Scapegoated' Over Horizon Review
The Post Office's former general counsel felt "scapegoated" over the conclusions of an independent report she commissioned into the IT system used to prosecute hundreds of innocent people, she told the inquiry into the scandal Tuesday.
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April 23, 2024
Advertising Biz Can't Avoid Liability For Billboard Tech IP
A London appeals court ruled Tuesday that a sports advertising company's digital billboard displays did not analyze pixels in a different enough way to overturn a finding that it infringed a rival's patent for the moving displays.
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April 23, 2024
Biotech Gets Rival's DNA-Detection Patents Invalidated
A London court nixed two DNA sequence detection patents Tuesday, ruling that information available before they were protected would have prompted skilled scientists to make the invention eventually.
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April 23, 2024
Litigation Funders Face Risk Of Regulation In Judicial Reform
England's judicial adviser announced Tuesday that it has launched a review into third-party civil litigation funding that will consider whether to regulate the sector, cap fees and investigate conflicts of interest between funders and litigants.
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April 23, 2024
UK Shuts Business For Fraudulent Timeshare Exit Claims
The U.K. government said Tuesday that it has shut down an unregulated timeshare exit company after finding that it was "misleading hundreds of clients" by offering them help with complications in their timeshare contracts.
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April 23, 2024
YMCA Exec Loses Claim That In-Office Rule Forced Her Out
A senior employee at a YMCA hostel has lost her claim that she was forced to quit because bosses would not let her permanently switch to remote working, after an employment tribunal ruled it wasn't in her contract.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Uber Payout Offers Employer Lessons On Mitigating Bias
Uber Eats' recent payout to a driver over allegations that the company's facial recognition software was discriminatory sheds light on bias in AI, and offers guidance for employers on how to avoid harming employees through the use of such technology, says Rachel Rigg at Fieldfisher.
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Apple Ruling Offers Morsel Of Certainty On Litigation Funding
An English court's recent decision in Gutmann v. Apple, finding that a litigation funder could be paid via a damages award, offers a piece of guidance on the permissibility of such agreement terms amid the ongoing uncertainty around funded group litigation in the U.K., says Mohsin Patel at Factor Risk Management.
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Clarifying Legal Elements To Support A Genocide Claim At ICJ
Reporting on South Africa’s dispute against Israel in the International Court of Justice largely fails to clearly articulate what a case for genocide alleged in the context of war requires — a technical analysis that will evaluate several key factors, from the scale of the devastation to statements by officials, say Solomon Shinerock and Alex Bedrosyan at Lewis Baach.
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Opinion
Employment Tribunal Fees Risk Reducing Access To Justice
Before the proposed fee regime for employment tribunal claims can take effect, the government needs much more evidence that low-income individuals — arguably the tribunal system's most important users — will not be negatively affected by the fees, says Max Winthrop, employment law committee chair at the Law Society.
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Tribunal Cases Illustrate Balancing Act Of Anti-Bias Protection
Recent employment tribunal discrimination cases show employers the complexities of determining the scope of protected characteristics under the Equality Act, and responding proportionately, particularly when conflicts involve controversial beliefs that can trigger competing employee discrimination claims, say Michael Powner and Sophie Rothwell at Charles Russell.
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EU Ruling Exposes Sovereignty Fissures In Int'l Arbitration
The European Court of Justice's recent ruling that the U.K. had breached EU law by allowing an arbitral award to proceed underscores the diminished influence of EU jurisprudence in the U.K., hinting at the EU courts' increasingly nominal sway in international arbitration within jurisdictions that prize legal autonomy, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray’s Inn.
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UK Arbitration Ruling Offers Tips On Quelling Bias Concerns
An English court's recent decision in H1 v. W to remove an arbitrator because of impartiality concerns offers several lessons on mitigating bias, including striking a balance between arbitration experience and knowledge of a particular industry, and highlights the importance of careful arbitrator appointment, says Paul-Raphael Shehadeh at Duane Morris.
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UK Amazon Ruling Spotlights TM Rights In International Sales
Highlighting the conflict between the territorial nature of trademark rights and the borderless nature of the internet, the U.K. Supreme Court's recent decision — that Amazon's U.S. website could infringe EU and U.K. rights by targeting local buyers — offers guidance on navigating trademark rights in relation to online sales, say Emmy Hunt, Mark Kramer and Jordan Mitchell at Potter Clarkson.
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UK Courts Continue To Struggle With Crypto-Asset Cases
Although the common law has proved capable of applying established principles to crypto-assets, recent cases highlight persistent challenges in identifying defendants, locating assets and determining jurisdiction, suggesting that any meaningful development will likely come from legislative or regulatory change, say Emily Saunderson and Sam Mitchell at Quadrant Chambers.
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Why Computer Evidence Is Not Always Reliable In Court
Recent challenges to the admissibility of encrypted communication from the messaging tool EncroChat highlight the flawed presumption in the U.K. common law framework that computer evidence is always accurate, and why a nuanced assessment of such evidence is needed, say Sam De Silva and Josie Welland at CMS Legal.
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Lessons On Using 3rd-Party Disclosure Orders In Fraud Cases
The expansion of the gateway for service out of jurisdiction regarding third-party information orders has proven to be an effective tool against fraud since it was introduced in 2022, and recent case law offers practical tips on what applicants should be aware of when submitting such orders, says Rosie Wild at Cooke Young.
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Bias Ruling Offers Guidance On Disqualifying Arbitrators
An English court's recent decision in H1 v. W, removing an arbitrator due to bias concerns, reaffirms practical considerations when assessing an arbitrator's impartiality, and highlights how ill-chosen language by an arbitrator can clear the high bar for disqualification, say Andrew Connelly and Ian Meredith at K&L Gates.
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Employer Lessons From Ruling On Prof's Anti-Zionist Views
In Miller v. University of Bristol, an employment tribunal recently ruled that a professor's anti-Zionist beliefs were protected by the Equality Act 2010, highlighting for employers why it’s important to carefully consider disciplinary actions related to an employee's political expressions, says Hina Belitz at Excello Law.