Legal News

On 2 October 2025, LCP reported that a funding surplus left FTSE 100 companies’ pension arrangements at an aggregate 120% funding level as at the end of September 2025. However, it stressed that individual retirement savings plans differ markedly in practice, with funding positions spanning roughly 90% to above 150%. Jonathan Griffin, Partner at LCP, said that with strong funding and over £55bn of surplus across FTSE 100 schemes, the focus has decisively moved on from funding towards future-proofing and delivering value......

Britain should emulate the United States, where new federal responsibilities are being considered for handling catastrophic cyber attacks, according to the London & International Insurance Brokers' Association ( LIIBA). This advice is set out in a broader report that details practical actions the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) might take to pursue a pro-growth agenda for the insurance broking industry. In the paper, LIIBA contends that regulators can help develop 'public-private shock absorbers for systemic perils'. It also states that ' Targeted backstops can restore market function after step-change shocks', LIIBA said......

The Ministry of Defence ( Mo D) has acknowledged it owed a duty of care to ex‑forces personnel who sustained hearing loss, yet it disputes the criteria for establishing that the loss arose during service and the quantum of damages. A so‑called matrix agreement between the parties means the Mo D will not challenge this group of claims as being out of time. It has also agreed not to contest the levels of noise to which personnel were exposed. The ten‑week High Court trial, which started on 6 October 2025, will consider multiple test cases from different branches of the armed forces, covering a range of ages and varying severities of hearing impairment. Simon Ellis, partner and head of the specialist military department at Hugh James, represents around 5,000 ex‑servicemen and women. He said the result of the trial is expected to...

A German investor came before an Israeli court to have an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ( ICSID) award, issued in Paris on 22 June 2021, recognised and enforced, but met a judicial reaction that, though mindful of the ICSID Convention’s unique enforcement framework, ultimately refused to set the local apparatus in motion, at least for the time being. The court paused the case and administratively closed the file, ordering each side to absorb its own expenses, out of respect for a fluid and still-developing clash between foreign legal systems over the enforceability of intra- EU investment awards. While Israel is outside the EU and Israeli courts are not subject to the supremacy assertions of EU law, the bench carefully weighed the broader international backdrop. It noted, on one side, Israel’s treaty commitments under the ICSID Convention. On the other side, it...

Christian Bittar’s 2018 fraud conviction for manipulating a key European interest rate benchmark remains secure following a review of the Serious Fraud Office’s prosecution, the agency confirmed in a statement issued within its Response to Supreme Court judgment... The SFO acknowledged in August 2025 that it was reassessing cases involving former traders after the UK Supreme Court quashed the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo on the basis that they had not received a fair trial. In contrast to those defendants, Bittar pleaded guilty to fraud relating to a key benchmark interest rate ahead of any trial, and his case did not go before a jury... In a statement dated 6 October 2025, the SFO’s Jason Williams pointed to the Supreme Court justices’ conclusions that, even with correct directions from the trial judge in the Hayes and Palombo matters, there remained ample evidence on which to...

Mergers Other developments The Commission approved the purchase of shared control of Production Resource Group, L. L. C...

On 2 October 2025, High Court judge Andrew Baker held that the Danish Customs and Tax Administration — Skatteforvaltningen, or Skat — was not deceived into issuing thousands of wrongful repayments of dividend taxes that had never been paid, arising from so-called cum-ex arrangements. Nicola Mc Kinney, a partner at Quillon Law, described the result as a 'bruising defeat for Skat', likely to prompt scrutiny of whether Skat’s legal team framed the case too narrowly and why it then collapsed when tested against England’s rules on fraudulent misrepresentation. She added that questions are likely about the limits of the law of fraudulent misrepresentation and the scope of Skat’s claim. Denmark’s proceedings were built on the contention that it had been defrauded by Shah and his hedge fund, Solo Capital Partners, who induced Skat to release funds to investors outside the country who falsely...

Private actions CAT refuses Kerilee Investment Limited’s application to set aside strike-out in action against International Tin Association The CAT delivered its judgment in Kerilee Investments Limited v International Tin Association Limited, proceedings initiated, pursuant to section 47A of the Competition Act 1998, by Kerilee Investments Limited ( Kerilee) against International Tin Association Limited ( ITA), contending that ITA had abused its dominant position by preventing Kerilee’s membership and excluding it from International Tin Supply Chain Initiative conflict mineral due-diligence scheme......

GGR Business Model and related policy On 27 August 2025, DESNZ released a suite of documents setting out its proposed GGR Business Model and associated policy. The package includes: GGR Business Model Summary Draft GGR Front End Agreement Draft GGR Standard Terms and Conditions, which together constitute the ‘ GGR Contract’ Draft GGR Grant Offer Letter Draft GGR Grant Funding Agreement Terms and Conditions The GGR Grant Funding Agreement Terms and Conditions are intended to be incorporated as a schedule to the final version of the GGR Grant Offer Letter. The GGR Grant Offer Letter, along with its schedules (including the GGR Grant Funding Agreement Terms and Conditions), is referred to as the ‘ Grant Funding Agreement’. The GGR Business Model aims to stimulate private capital in GGR technologies in the UK, with particular emphasis on engineered removals of...

In its 2026 work programme, ESMA noted that teams are already busy laying the necessary groundwork to commence fresh supervision across these fields and of consolidated tape providers, set to deliver price and volume market data via a unified electronic stream. ' Through broad engagement and advance preparation work, ESMA supervisory units are now readying themselves to assume these new duties', ESMA Director Natasha Cazenave said in a statement. The authority added that the broadened supervisory scope ties into new or updated EU rules now applying across financial services. ESMA will, from 2 July 2026, begin registering environmental, social and governance ( ESG) rating firms under the new ESG ratings regulation. This framework, enforced by ESMA, sets standards for how providers issue ESG assessments used to gauge companies’ financial exposure to those risks. In June 2026, ESMA will oversee external reviewers of green bonds,...

Aubrey Weis v HMRC [2025] EWHC 2479 ( Admin) In May 2019, HMRC determined that the taxpayer was domiciled in the UK for the period 2005 to 2013 and accordingly amended his returns for those years to assess UK tax on his worldwide income and gains. He had submitted the returns asserting an Israeli domicile, saying he relied on a written HMRC decision from November 2000 and later correspondence indicating that HMRC had accepted that position. He asked for the amendments to be reviewed by an independent HMRC officer. The officer confirmed the amendments, prompting an appeal to the First-tier Tax Tribunal ( FTT). In March 2025, the FTT rejected the appeal, holding that the taxpayer had chosen a UK domicile before 2005: see [2025] UKFTT 348 ( TC). That outcome followed a failed attempt to resolve the dispute through ADR and formal...

Ivey and others v Lythgoe and others [2025] EWHC 2325 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment provides practical guidance on: Duty of care of Will-writers: The ruling confirms that non-solicitor Will-writers owe a duty of care, and mistakes—like misconstruing exclusions or leaving out intended beneficiaries—can found negligence claims. Joining as a costs-only party: Procedurally, the court refused to add the Will-writing company as a costs-only party under SCA 1981, s 51, holding that costs liability cannot be fixed until negligence is proved. Instead, it consolidated the probate and negligence claims under CPR 3.1(2)(h) to streamline case management where the facts overlap. Drafting and reviewing Wills: For private client advisers, the decision stresses telling clients to scrutinise draft Wills and to consider solicitor involvement for complex instructions. For litigators and professional negligence...

FTT holds payments to employees under tax avoidance scheme were taxable earnings despite purported repayment obligation ( GW Martin & Co Limited & another v HMRC) GW Martin & Co Ltd & another v The Commissioners for HMRC [2025] UKFTT 1147 ( TC). The appellants transferred sums to employees on the basis that those employees would subscribe for a newly created class of shares in the appellants (the Shares). These Shares conferred no voting power, no dividend entitlement, and only very limited rights in the event of a winding up. The structure was intended to sidestep PAYE and NICs liabilities while also delivering a corporation tax deduction. The sums advanced were not loans; rather, they were conditional on staff taking up Shares with a nominal value mirroring the payments. Only 1% of that nominal amount was paid up, leaving the remaining 99%...

Gotti v Perrett [2025] EWCA Civ 1168 What are the practical implications of this case? The circumstances addressed in this judgment, and the issues it engages, are out of the ordinary and unlikely to feature frequently. Nevertheless, as the Court of Appeal remarked when granting permission for this second appeal, the issuing of a claim form is fundamental to civil litigation in this jurisdiction. Accordingly, it has wider resonance to recognise that a pre-action application for injunctive relief amounts to ‘proceedings’ for various purposes under the CPR. It is also of note that the power in CPR 3.10 to remedy procedural errors is sufficiently expansive and effective to allow an application notice to be treated as a claim form. What was the background? The appellant, the founder of a nationwide cosmetic surgery business, became embroiled in a dispute with the respondent, an independent advocate for cosmetic surgery...

Mergers Other developments The Commission authorised: the purchase of shared control of Eiffel 65 SAS by Mr Armand Thiberge, Oakley Viking Luxco S.à.r.l., and General Atlantic Bloom B. V.......

Public Office ( Accountability) Bill What are the overall principal goals and intended purposes of the put forward Public Office ( Accountability) Bill legislation?......

Competition policy: CMA publishes guidance on reporting competition and consumer law concerns On 7 October 2024, the CMA released guidance that explains how to submit a complaint about suspected anti-competitive behaviour or breaches of consumer law, and sets out what complainants should expect once their complaint has been filed. Background Complaints—excluding those concerning cartels, which follow a separate route—can be made using the CMA’s online form, or by telephone or email......

Re: Arbitration Appeal No 2 of 2024 [2025] CSOH 70 What are the practical implications of this case? Three aspects of this case stand as a note for practitioners and their clients. First, the Outer House confirmed the formidable bar for a serious irregularity challenge to an arbitral award to succeed in the Scottish courts. The court characterised such challenges as a ‘long stop’, available only in ‘extreme cases’. Success is possible only where the appellant has suffered substantial injustice (paragraph [29]). Against that backdrop, advisers should reflect carefully on bringing such an appeal and their chances of prevailing. Second, the court offered helpful direction on which matters are intrinsic to disputes before an arbitrator (for example, here, the timing of service of an expulsion notice). In that context, the essential function of pleadings is to define the scope of the evidence to be led, not to...

Tresoldi v Amazon EU Sàrl , case number KB-2025-002852 Claim issued against Amazon in the UK A consumer injured by a power tool bought on Amazon Marketplace has brought what has been characterised as a ‘first of its kind’ claim against an online marketplace in the UK. The case contends that the tool—referenced in a 2023 Office for Product Safety and Standards ( OPSS) product safety report—was defective under CPA 1987. It is also said the claimant pursued breaches of contractual terms concerning satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose. Reports indicate the product was purchased before the OPSS safety alert, and the claimant sustained a finger injury in September 2022 that required partial amputation. Under CPA 1987, a person suffering personal injury caused wholly or in part by a defective product may seek compensation from: the producer of the product; an...

As cryptoassets cement their status as a favoured conduit for cross-border investment and financial services, governments have embraced an array of regulatory strategies and approaches. A core attraction of cryptoassets is their capacity to support dealings outside conventional state scrutiny, letting participants transact with substantial anonymity via decentralised exchanges, privacy-focused coins, mixing services, and stealth addresses. However, these attributes equally heighten the hazards linked to cryptoassets, notably their propensity to facilitate unlawful conduct including money laundering, terrorist financing, and ransomware operations. This piece sets out a comparative review of the ways various jurisdictions are tackling the regulation and oversight of cryptoassets and exchanges and trading platforms to address such threats. Responses span agile, tech-responsive regulatory regimes intended to evolve in tandem with the technology and ongoing innovation, through to stricter policies seeking to exclude decentralised cryptoassets from national markets...