Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Illiquidx v Altana Wealth: defining confidential information; NDA expiry and equitable duty of confidence; late-stage amendments, strike-out and summary judgment before trial (England and Wales)

Published on: 16 October 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Information Law expert

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Article summary

Illiquidx Ltd v Altana Wealth Ltd and others [2024] EWHC 2191 (Ch)

What are the practical implications of this case?

This ruling underscores for all practitioners the need to pin down, with accuracy, the precise scope of the 'confidential information' their client wishes to shield. It contains takeaways for both transactional and disputes lawyers: from settling the language of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to setting out, with particularity, the confidential material in issue and the ways said material is alleged to have been misused. Pitching an over expansive tranche of information as 'confidential' risks a strike-out for abuse of process. By contrast, failing to identify the relevant categories of 'confidential' information at the start, then attempting to widen those categories mid-proceedings, will almost certainly attract robust opposition from a defendant. Here, the claimant was criticised for a succession of amendments since proceedings began in July 2020, said to leave the defendants engaged in a game of 'whack-a-mole' as fresh allegations appeared, with the upshot that the case against them was not properly apprehended. Additionally, in circumstances where the defendants' contractual duties under the NDA had run their course, and the claimant was advancing a distinctly and arguably 'borderline' claim under...

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