Legal News

Approach to Consumer Protection The CMA has indicated in its Approach to Consumer Protection that, over the first 12 months of the new regime, it will: home in on conduct causing the greatest possible harm to consumers and showing clear and obvious breaches of the new rules continue to give priority to areas of essential expenditure, supporting people who are facing pressure on household budgets undertake wide-ranging and ongoing engagement with businesses and produce further accessible guidance to help firms comply with the law The CMA will concentrate on what it deems the most egregious infringements of consumer law, such as: high-pressure sales tactics directly aimed at vulnerable consumers supplying consumers with information that is objectively untrue automatically unfair commercial practices, including the additional unfair practice of posting fake reviews fees that remain hidden until very late in the purchasing journey contract terms that are plainly one-sided and unfair, including those that impose unfair exit...

Key changes DMCCA 2024, Part 3 confers fresh, direct enforcement powers on the CMA in respect of specified consumer regulations. Those powers will apply under the new framework introduced by Part 4 of DMCCA 2024 (effective from 6 April 2025), while the predecessor Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 ( CPUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277, will continue to govern relevant actions—such as misleading statements and omissions—that took place before that date. The CMA may investigate suspected breaches of consumer protection law and, where a contravention is identified, direct companies to comply with remedial steps (for example, removing offending statements from public materials or communications) and/or levy a penalty of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover, including the turnover of any parent company and subsidiaries. In addition, throughout an investigation, the CMA can require undertakings from a business, such as...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Agency and distribution Consumer protection Contracts International Public procurement Sale and supply of goods Supplier management Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& A Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—16 April 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority issued two decisions on 16 April 2025. A challenge to Fitzdares Ltd over Stuart Broad’s betting promotion was dismissed, as the regulator concluded the retired cricketer did not have a strong pull for under-18s. Separately, Vodafone’s “ The Nation’s Network” claim was upheld in part: the television advert was acceptable given its clear heritage framing, but the website advert breached the CAP Code by presenting an unsubstantiated comparative claim without objective verification. See: LNB News 16/04/2025 30. Agency and...

Background This appeal concerns the Appellant’s challenge to the legality of statutory guidance from the Respondent, which treats a GRC confirming a person’s gender as female as bringing them within the Eq A 2010 definition of ‘woman’. The Gender Representation on Public Boards ( Scotland) Act 2018, an Act of the Scottish Parliament ( ASP 2018), sets targets to boost the share of women on public boards. Originally, ASP 2018 defined ‘woman’ to include those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment: individuals living as women and proposing to undergo, undergoing, or having undergone a process of gender reassignment. In 2022, following a challenge by the Appellant ( FWS1), the Inner House held that this statutory definition was unlawful, as it addressed matters beyond the Scottish Parliament’s legislative competence. After FWS1, the Respondent published revised statutory guidance, which is now under...

Rukhadze and others v Recovery Partners GP Ltd and another [2025] UKSC 10 Background This appeal concerns the fiduciary ‘profit rule’. Fiduciaries, including trustees and company directors, owe a duty of loyalty to their beneficiary or principal (the person for whom they hold or administer property, eg the company in the case of a director). That duty includes a requirement that, where a fiduciary derives a profit by virtue of their position, they must account for that gain to the principal, unless the principal has given fully informed consent. The respondents to this appeal are a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (to which the claims of another such company have been assigned) together with an English LLP. The individual appellants were engaged by the respondents and occupied roles of trust and responsibility (for example serving as directors), thereby owing fiduciary duties to them. In...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection Contracts Data protection International Sale and supply of goods Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—9 April 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) issued eleven decisions this week. The grievances spanned misleading environmental claims, and misrepresentations about trader identity and location, delivery schedules, refund terms, and product materials. Findings on deceptive advertising signal a change in the ASA’s enforcement stance following commencement of the unfair commercial practices provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( DMCCA 2024), Part 4, Chapter 1. See: LNB News 09/04/2025 39. ASA rulings—9 April 2025— Environmental claims The ASA received seventy-five complaints, including from Adfree Cities and Carbon Tracker, about a television advert by Shell UK Ltd,...

Late last year, the Home Office issued a policy paper. It was triggered by a House of Lords committee review into the effect of MSA 2015. While the committee hailed MSA 2015 as pioneering, it emphasised that ‘the world has changed and best practice has moved on’. It urged government to introduce ‘proportionate sanctions’ for organisations that fail to comply with the Act’s obligations; most notably the annual requirement for companies to report on measures to identify and prevent modern slavery. The report also portrays a ‘current approach of no enforcement’ in relation to MSA 2015. Under the Act, businesses with turnover exceeding £36m must publish a yearly slavery and human trafficking statement. However, it does not set out what that statement must contain. The policy paper further notes that, although the Home Secretary can seek an injunction to enforce...

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA v Conti 11 Container Schiffahrts- Gmb H & Co KG MS ‘ MSC Flaminia’ [2025] UKSC 14 Background The appeal arose from an explosion on the MSC Flaminia, a container vessel owned by Conti and operated by MSC under a time charter. The incident occurred in 2012 mid- Atlantic, causing fatalities, environmental contamination, and extensive damage to the ship. Conti commenced arbitration against MSC and obtained an award exceeding US$200 million. MSC subsequently sought to cap its liability under the 1976 Convention. The Supreme Court was asked to resolve two issues: whether the 1976 Convention allows a charterer to limit liability to the owner in respect of a claim for loss originally suffered by the owner the correct construction of Articles 2.1(a), (e) and (f) of the 1976...

In this issue Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Agency and distribution Consumer protection Contracts E-commerce International sale and supply of goods Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—2 April 2025: The ASA received four complaints about ads from A3 Games Pte Ltd and John Mills Ltd, raising concerns over the sexualisation and objectification of women in a game promotion and allegedly misleading shapewear claims. The regulator upheld the complaints. See: LNB News 02/04/2025 29. BCAP updates section 14 of the BCAP Code: BCAP has issued a statement confirming revisions to section 14 of the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising, following consultation. The amendments make clear that existing restrictions confining ads for unregulated investments to specialist financial channels and programming also cover...

Justice Richard Arnold granted Astra Zeneca leave to appeal and permitted lorries carrying about 175,000 packs of Glenmark’s generics to move on to wholesalers, provided they did not reach pharmacy shelves while the case continued at any point during those interim proceedings. In this way, Glenmark could keep its first-to-market advantage, while causing only minimal detriment to Astra Zeneca should the Court of Appeal later be persuaded to issue an injunction against supply. The judge said this approach maintained the status quo with the least possible prejudice to Glenmark’s position overall. The hearing was arranged at short notice, just days after the High Court refused Astra Zeneca an injunction to block the diabetes generic from sale while the court considered whether the patents supporting the branded medicine were valid in law. Glenmark, Generics ( UK) Ltd and Teva...

A campaign led by Ekō is urging Meta to cease displaying targeted adverts to users. The effort refers to the settlement in letters sent to the company. ‘ This settlement confirms our right to object to the use of personal data for direct marketing’, Ekō notes in the project, which enables citizens to e-mail Meta to register their objections. O’ Carroll’s case could also significantly shape decisions on the pay-or-consent model, which Meta said it would pursue after the settlement, as the Commission prepares a final ruling in early April 2025 on whether such models align with Regulation ( EU) 2022/1925, the EU Digital Markets Act ( EU DMA). ‘ The potential ramifications [of the settlement] are massive, because it could provide a gateway not just for UK citizens, but also for a lot of Europeans to object to online...

Rukhadze v Recovery Partners GP Ltd [2025] UKSC 10 What are the practical implications? The majority concluded that the liability to account for unauthorised gains is strict in nature and does not turn on whether the principal might have earned an equivalent profit, or would have agreed to the fiduciary retaining some or all of it if permission had been sought. It is, in short, enough that there is a sufficient connection between the fiduciary obligation and the gain. What was the background? The facts are complex but can be outlined very briefly so as to frame the issue now before the Supreme Court. The dispute followed the death of the Georgian billionaire Patarkatsishvili (known as ‘ Badri’, a name familiar to aficionados of oligarch litigation). The claimants (and associated parties) agreed with his family that they would deliver services to recover his assets...

In this issue: Spring Statement 2025 Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Agency and distribution Consumer protection Contracts International Supplier management New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& As Spring Statement 2025 Spring Statement 2025—key Commercial announcements On 26 March 2025, as part of the Spring Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP, set out the government’s programme to restore stability, ramp up investment, and stimulate economic growth. The initiatives revealed are intended to move the government closer to meeting the principal milestones in the Plan for Change, released in December 2024. See: LNB News 26/03/2025 52. Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Meta settles UK lawsuit over use of personal data for advertising MLex: Meta Platforms has concluded a UK claim and agreed to stop using personal data belonging to Tanya O’ Carroll, a campaigner who contended the firm’s targeted advertising practices were not compliant with the United Kingdom General Data Protection...

Protection from Unfair Trading Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( Commencement No 2) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/272, reg 2, most of DMCCA 2024, Pt 4, Ch 1 will take effect on 6 April 2025. The provisions not commencing concern consumers’ private law rights of redress ( DMCCA 2024, ss 232, 234 and 235). Chapter 1, ‘ Protection from Unfair Trading’, supersedes the Consumer Protection from Unfair Commercial Practices Regulations 2008 ( CPUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277, as outlined in DMCCA 2024, s 224. In contrast to much of the remainder of the Act, Pt 4, Ch 1 is not designed to be a wholesale reform of existing statutory protections; instead, it largely preserves the prior legal effect, with minor modifications (see Explanatory Note to DMCCA 2024, para 1330). Many updates are definitional refinements that recognise the case law developed since CPUTR 2008 came into...

In October 2020, the claimant played the defendant’s Wild Hatter, a two-part game combining a fruit machine with a wheel of fortune. After triggering and completing the jackpot spin, her on-screen display announced a win of the ‘ Monster Jackpot’, shown as £1,097,132.71. The case in Durber centred on the mismatch between what appeared on her screen and the operator’s server logs, resulting in a drastic downgrade in the payout from a purported Monster Jackpot exceeding £1m to a far smaller Daily Jackpot of £20,265.14. The claimant pursued the shortfall between that figure and the Monster Jackpot. The defendant maintained that a random number generator had in fact awarded only the Daily Jackpot, and that a fault affected the game’s animations, erroneously presenting an incorrect outcome. It relied on its terms and conditions and pointed to prior rulings in Parker- Grennan v Camelot UK...

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Agency and distribution Consumer protection Contracts Contractual joint ventures International Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers New and updated content Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—19 March 2025 A single complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) about Haven Leisure Ltd’s claims on holiday pricing. The ASA upheld the complaint. See: LNB News 19/03/2025 11. Agency and distribution Recovery Partners GP Ltd v Rukhadze [2025] UKSC 10 The Supreme Court dismissed the appellants’ appeal against an order to account for profits earned in breach of duty; they were employees of the respondent companies and owed fiduciary duties. The court affirmed strict adherence to the fiduciary ‘no profit’ rule, rejecting arguments for a ‘but for’ causation test and for counterfactual enquiries into whether the gains could have been authorised if consent had been sought. See: Recovery Partners GP Ltd v Rukhadze [2025] UKSC 10......

In this issue: Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection International Sale and supply of goods Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& A Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—12 March 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) received a single complaint about an Amazon.co.uk listing for a magnetic building block toy set by Shenzhenshi Senyi Dianzi Shangwu Youxiangongsi t/a Plum Marketing. The concern was that the promotion was irresponsible and harmful as it showed children apparently under three using the product. The ASA upheld the complaint. See: LNB News 12/03/2025 26... Consumer protection CMA chief outlines implementation plans for new digital markets and consumer powers In a speech at tech UK on 10 March 2025, Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA), set out how new digital...

The current regime applicable to AI-related products—the EU product liability directive The governing product liability framework for AI-related products is Directive 85/374/ EEC, the EU Product Liability Directive ( EU PLD). In addition, claimants may pursue claims based on contractual liability or other forms of non-contractual liability that fall outside the scope of the EU PLD. Directive ( EU) 2024/2853, the revised EU Product Liability Directive ( Revised EU PLD), will apply to products first placed on the market or put into service after 9 December 2026. Products placed on the market before that date will remain subject to the existing EU PLD until its repeal takes effect on 9 December 2026. Under the EU PLD, consumers can obtain redress where they prove a defect in a product, personal damage or property damage (excluding the product itself), and a causal connection between the defect and the...

In this issue Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection Contracts International 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 ASA rulings—5 March 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints against Gemporia Ltd following a teleshopping segment for Tahitian pearl earrings. Price claims and comparative statements were ruled misleading, with assertions on anticipated resale value and comparisons with rival products found to be unsubstantiated. See: LNB News 05/03/2025 10. ASA highlights rulings on Dark Patterns under the UK advertising code An ASA blog outlines how previous CAP Code rulings have addressed ‘ Dark Patterns’. It considers key risks around choice architecture, pressure to decide, and the presentation of choice information, highlighting cases where misleading design in third‑party reward programmes and...

In this issue Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Consumer protection International Public Procurement Supplier management Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& A Advertising, marketing and sponsorship ASA rulings—26 February 2025 The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two challenges concerning an email from Maki Online Services Ltd t/a Nino Apply, which exaggerated the consequences of not renewing a Biometric Residence Permit and failed to disclose the availability of a free e Visa. See: LNB News 26/02/2025 21. CAP and BCAP launch further consultation on 'less healthy' ads rules Acting for the ASA, the Committees of Advertising Practice ( CAP and BCAP) have begun a further consultation on introducing new restrictions on promoting ‘less healthy’ food and drink to children. From October 2025, these rules will bar such advertising on TV and online during set periods. Input is requested on refreshed guidance for applying the rules, following responses to a prior...