Legal News

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection Intellectual property Public procurement Sale and supply of goods Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Following the ASA upholding complaints about Nike, Lacoste and Superdry, is the watchdog’s AI spotting technology about to make AI-enabled distribution models unfashionable? On 3 December, the ASA released three rulings on fashion adverts, illustrating how its Active Ad Monitoring system is directing efforts towards topics it regards as priorities. These outcomes reinforce a consistent theme in recent rulings and guidance: automation does not lessen an advertiser’s accountability for the substance of its ads. See News Analysis exploring whether, after the ASA’s decisions against Nike, Lacoste and Superdry, the regulator’s AI detection system could render AI-driven...

On Wednesday 3 December, the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) released three compelling rulings concerning fashion advertising. They arrive in the wake of the Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA) probes into ASOS, Boo Hoo and George at Asda (see: LNB News 29/07/2022 38) and the regulator’s later guidance on environmental claims for fashion (see News Analysis: Updated CAP guidance—the environment—misleading claims and social responsibility in advertising). The latest ASA outcomes illustrate the self-regulatory body backing the statutory regulator by ‘seamlessly’ carrying its policy across the fashion sector. Moreover, this trio shows the ASA deploying its much-vaunted Active Ad Monitoring system to concentrate resources on issues it judges significant, rather than simply dancing to the tune of competitors, the media or special interest groups. This piece is by Brinsley Dresden, partner and co-head of advertising and marketing at Lewis Silkin LLP. For further detail on...

The case for reform The To R begin by asserting that the existing framework under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (the CPA) ‘…is no longer fit for purpose…’. This is expressed more emphatically than earlier communications from the Law Commission. At this preliminary stage, its stance appears to be that the issue is not ‘if’ reform is required, but ‘how’ it should be achieved. Clear echoes to the EU reforms The To R carry unmistakeable parallels with the recent EU overhaul set out in the new Product Liability Directive ( EU) 2024/2853 (currently in the implementation phase across EU Member States—read more here): Of particular note, the Law Commission indicates it will consider whether: the ‘burden of proof for claimants to bring a successful claim is too onerous’—might the Law Commission also be contemplating introducing ‘rebuttable presumptions’ regarding defect and/or causation?......

The Court of Appeal agreed The Court of Appeal confirmed that an earlier arrangement Peter Cushing made before his death, granting Tyburn Film Productions the right to digitally ‘resurrect’ him after 1994 to finish a different film, had no impact on the Cushing estate’s deal with Lucasfilm. As the judges could find no right transferred between Tyburn and Lucasfilm, there was no basis for saying Lucasfilm was ‘unjustly enriched’ at Tyburn’s expense, the court ruled. The judgment observed that the point at which a defendant’s enrichment is at a claimant’s expense remains uncertain, and that drawing the boundary between sound and defective claims is often difficult; this was not the moment to attempt to resolve it. At most, the estate may have breached an earlier contract with Tyburn concerning use of Cushing’s likeness, but Tyburn did not plead any such case, the judges held. Tyburn...

The ASA has published its final guidance on the promotion of less healthy food and drink. This version is largely unchanged from the earlier draft that was previously issued. For fuller detail, see Practice Note: Food advertising— New TV and online HFSS advertising restrictions and News Analysis: The implementation of advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, which analyses the updated Consultation response. Notably, it explains how the new rules apply to influencers, including that ‘gifted’ items fall within the paid-for online restrictions set out. It also notes that fleeting mentions of less healthy products—such as within a supermarket’s Christmas ad—are less likely to be caught in practice. When is a product identifiable and in scope of the restrictions? The statutory question is whether people in the UK could reasonably be expected to recognise an...

Earlier this year, the decision in Macdonald Hotels v Bank of Scotland unsettled lenders and their advisers, with obiter observations intimating that, for the ‘face value’ test to be satisfied for a deed, the document, on its face, must make plain that all parties expressly intended it to operate as a deed, rather than only those executing it as a deed. That stance differs from common practice in certain finance instruments, notably intercreditor agreements, which frequently state that only specified parties execute and deliver them as deeds and, unlike security documents, are ordinarily styled as ‘agreements’ in many instances. The City of London Law Society ( CLLS) subsequently released a note expressing its view on the comments and on how to comply with the face value test, confirming that, in its opinion, there is a measure of flexibility in the ways the face value...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Contracts International Public procurement Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& A Commercial Highlights 2025/2026 Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—17 December 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) received six objections about adverts for weight-loss medicines and services, covering promotion of prescription-only medicines, irresponsible body-image messaging and gender stereotyping, plus assertions that a medicine assists beyond its authorised indication. The ASA upheld the complaints. See: LNB News 17/12/2025 20. Which? finds budget airlines’ cabin bag fees far higher than advertised Consumer's Association ( Which?) carried out research into budget airline bag pricing, finding that major carriers such as Ryan Air and Easyjet routinely fail to include in the advertised total the realistic cost of baggage. Which? has referred its findings to the ASA for misleading 'from' price claims and the ASA is investigating. See: LNB News 15/12/2025...

Houssein & others v London Credit Ltd & others [2025] EWHC 2749 ( Ch) The High Court had earlier held in 2023 that the Default Rate amounted to an unenforceable penalty. The Court of Appeal, however, concluded that the judge had misapplied the principles in Cavendish Square Holding BV v El Makdessi ( Makdessi) and sent the question back for fresh determination. Under Makdessi, the inquiry is whether a default rate serves a legitimate interest and, if so, whether the amount demanded is still extravagant, exorbitant or unconscionable. A striking aspect of the July 2020 bridging facility letter agreed between London Credit Ltd ( LCL) and CEK Investments Limited ( CEK) (the Facility Letter) was the wording of the ‘ Default Interest Provision’. It stated that, if an event of default under the facility ( Event of Default) occurred and payment was not made,...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection Contracts Data protection E-commerce Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—10 December 2025 As part of a broader, ongoing review into online promotions for food supplements purporting to ease or treat autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) upheld four complaints about paid Facebook and Google adverts by Ella Ola Brands Inc t/a Ella Olla, Get Dopa Ltd, Onecare Wellness Pte Ltd, and TAYHLI Ltd t/a C. A. T. See: LNB News 10/12/2025 36. CAP publishes rules implementing food and drink advertising restrictions The Committee of Advertising Practice ( CAP) has released the results of its consultation on rules and guidance to implement new statutory limits on advertising food and drink products, following formal approval by the ASA and Ofcom. From 5 January 2026, ads for...

Zalando v Commission, Case T-348/23, ECLI: EU: T:2025:821 Background: what is a VLOP and why does it matter? The EU DSA, introduced by the Commission to prevent unlawful and harmful behaviour online and to curb the spread of disinformation, created new categories for online intermediary service providers. All online platforms must calculate and disclose their EU monthly active user figures, and the VLOP label is reserved for services with at least 45 million such users. VLOPs face the most stringent obligations under the DSA, including duties concerning enhanced transparency, risk assessment, data sharing with authorities, and more robust action against illegal content and products. Read more about this in our previous blogs here and here. The Zalando case: challenging the VLOP status In April 2023, Zalando was included in the first cohort of platforms designated as VLOPs by the Commission, with the Commission stating that the...

Since April 2025, the CMA has run a significant, economy-wide review spanning more than 400 businesses across 19 distinct sectors in order to check adherence to price transparency rules. Drawing on the findings of this exercise, as well as further monitoring, the CMA flagged potential compliance issues in 14 sectors, such as drip pricing and misleading countdown clocks, which are now prohibited under the new framework. To tackle the concerns it has found, the CMA is using a two-tier strategy: initiating targeted enforcement against a limited set of companies and issuing advisory letters to 100 firms, while also releasing the final version of its price transparency guidance ( CMA209) to help businesses meet their legal requirements in full. Enforcement action The CMA has begun investigations into eight companies that it has reason to believe may have breached consumer law regarding their use of fees, their use of...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Confidential information Consumer protection Contracts Sale and supply of goods Supply chain Lex Talk®Commercial: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship How to avoid misleading claims— Lessons from recent beauty industry ASA decisions The beauty sector is highly competitive. Claims in marketing materials, including websites, that a product is the best or delivers health benefits can help brands gain attention. Such claims must be objective, capable of verification and backed by substantiation to comply with the Committee of Advertising Practice ( CAP) Code and to avoid a finding of misleading advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA). Cassandra Hill and Georgina Doukanaris examine the issues. See News Analysis: How to avoid misleading claims— Lessons from recent beauty industry ASA decisions. ASA rulings—3 December 2025 Three complaints were lodged with the ASA about paid Google search adverts by...

Two recent instances where claims breached the CAP code concern: (i) assertions about the health benefits of sunbeds; and (ii) whether you can state you are the number one recommended skincare brand. Together, they highlight the dangers of making health claims without substantiation and of not clearly signposting proof for comparative statements. Case 1: Sun Retail Ltd t/a Indigo Sun The ASA upheld a complaint from an NHS doctor that Indigo Sun’s advertising was misleading and irresponsible, and that it cited research out of context. On its website, Indigo Sun hosted a video titled ‘ The Health Benefits of Tanning’ which asserted that moderate, responsible sunbed use delivers significant health advantages, such as vitamin D generation and lower mortality than in people who had never used sunbeds. To support its mortality claims, the ad referred to a University of Edinburgh study. The ruling found the ad...

In this issue: Budget 2025 Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Agency and distribution Consumer protection Contracts Data protection E-commerce International Public procurement Sale and supply of goods Standard term and conditions Supply chain Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& A Budget 2025 Budget 2025—key Commercial announcements On 26 November 2025, in Budget 2025, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP, outlined plans designed to foster sustained economic growth. Alan Murdie, a barrister at Council Tax Legal Services, offers commentary on Budget 2025. See: LNB News 26/11/2025 61. Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—26 November 2025 A single complaint was submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) regarding Storage Giant Ltd’s claims about price guarantees and stated charges. The ASA...

Igors Veliks, formerly at Playtech, and his current employer, Realtime Latvia, persuaded the appeal court that the betting company lacks any entitlement to sue them in England. The judges held that any harm arising from the supposed commercial deception occurred beyond the UK, and they set aside a High Court ruling that had favoured Playtech. The court concluded that most of the loss said to stem from Veliks’ alleged misuse of trade secrets took place in Latvia, where Playtech is headquartered. As a result, assessment of damage falls to the Latvian courts, not to the English courts. Playtech maintained it had suffered a downturn in UK licensing income because of the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets, but the appeal court rejected that contention. The court noted: “ This pleading is concerned only with the indirect consequences for Playtech of the...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection Contracts E-commerce Intellectual property International Sale and supply of goods and services Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—19 November 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA), deploying its Active Ad Monitoring system, detected sponsored, paid-for search adverts placed by Hilton Worldwide Ltd. The ASA upheld the ruling. See: LNB News 19/11/2025 28. Consumer protection Commission publishes 2025–2030 Consumer Agenda On 19 November 2025, the European Commission adopted the 2025–2030 Consumer Agenda, a new strategic framework for EU consumer policy setting out specific priorities and measures for the next five years. The programme also defines concrete actions for the period. Spanning a wide slate of actions that directly address major challenges and reflect the cross-cutting character of consumer policy, the Agenda seeks to bolster consumer protection while promoting competitiveness, social fairness and sustainable growth. It does so in...

Inteligo Media SA v Autoritatea Naţională De Supraveghere A Prelucrării Datelor Cu Caracter Personal, Case C-654/23, ECLI: EU: C:2025:871 What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling recalibrates direct marketing for digital platforms, notably those operating freemium offerings and similar user models. By construing ‘sale’ broadly in the e Privacy Directive, the Court of Justice permits reliance on the soft opt-in to send direct promotional messages to holders of seemingly free accounts, provided every condition is met. Practitioners should observe that, where Article 13(2) e Privacy governs, no additional legal basis under the EU GDPR is required, which on paper simplifies compliance workloads and removes a tier of regulatory complication. Yet this point is more doctrinal than operational, as it has long been commonly assumed that, when Article 13(2) applies, consent is typically unnecessary and processing is routinely grounded in Article 6(1)(f) EU GDPR...

What are the practical implications of this case? Waiver pervades commercial law. In its typical guise, concerning contractual termination, it governs when a party is taken to have chosen to affirm or bring the contract to an end, thereby underpinning transactional certainty. Yet, if the party alleging waiver must establish the counterparty’s awareness of the particular contractual entitlement, that task is onerous. Proving what someone knew is intrinsically problematic, and the challenge is compounded where the relevant material is, as is frequently so, potentially privileged. Even so, the Court of Appeal concluded it was compelled to decide that knowledge of the right is a prerequisite, including where the right stems from express, executed terms. No carve-out exists by which the contents of express clauses are treated as known simply because they were agreed. The most acute practical issues arise in long, complex...

Factual background The dispute concerned a set of agreements under which King Crude Carriers and others (the Buyers) agreed to acquire three vessels from Ridgebury November LLC and others (the Sellers). The parties executed three Memoranda of Agreement based on the Norwegian Saleform 2012, as amended (the MOAs). The MOAs obliged the Buyers to place a 10% deposit of the price for each vessel with a third‑party deposit holder into designated accounts shortly after those accounts were opened, and to provide all documentation required to achieve that. The Buyers failed to supply the necessary paperwork, with the result that the accounts could not be opened and no funds could be deposited. The Sellers terminated the MOAs and, invoking the Mac Kay v Dick principle, sought to recover the deposits’ value from the Buyers as a debt. The Buyers accepted breach but...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Confidential information Contracts International Sale and supply of goods Supply of services Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—12 November 2025 A single complaint reached the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) regarding a TV and You Tube advert by Select Specs Ltd promoting its prescription spectacles range. The ASA upheld all three matters it examined. See: LNB News 12/11/2025 10. ICC publishes fifth edition of Environmental Marketing Communications Framework The International Chamber of Commerce ( ICC) has issued the fifth edition of its Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications, setting global self-regulatory benchmarks for environmental marketing claims. See: LNB News 07/11/2025 36. Confidential information Company Director held personally liable for misuse of confidential information ( Kieran Corrigan v One E Group &...