Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

No general shareholder right to company privileged documents; joint interest privilege is case-specific: Aabar Holdings S.A.R.L v Glencore plc [2024] EWHC 3046 (Comm)

Published on: 04 December 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

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Aabar Holdings S.A.R.L. v Glencore plc [2024] EWHC 3046 (Comm)

What are the practical implications of this case?

Though the ruling squarely concerns legal professional privilege within the company–shareholder sphere, many practitioners are likely to find it unexpected. At the very least, it disrupts long‑held assumptions about how privilege principles interact when a company holds privileged material that a shareholder wishes to access. Beyond that, the judgment repays close attention for its analysis of joint interest privilege. The judge underlined that there is no single, overarching joint interest privilege; its existence turns on the particular features of the relationship in question. In practice, this signals that future assertions of joint interest privilege will need more rigorous, relationship‑specific justification, and may, in turn, be met with sharper challenges focused on the precise dynamics between the parties...

What was the background?

Multiple groups of claimants have brought proceedings against Glencore plc (Glencore) and certain of its directors concerning alleged misconduct by Glencore’s subsidiaries in Africa...

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