Legal News

Lifestyle Equities v Sports Direct.com Retail [2025] EWHC 1417 ( Ch) Background This dispute arises from protracted litigation pitching Lifestyle Equities CV (owner of the marks) and its exclusive licensee, Lifestyle Licensing BV, against Sports Direct. In 2018, the High Court held Sports Direct responsible for infringement and for inducing a breach of a licence agreement, thereby opening the door to an inquiry into damages... Summary judgment application Sports Direct applied for summary judgment aiming to bar from the damages inquiry any losses claimed by trade mark sub-licensees, contending that: the sub-licensees had not been added as parties to the claim— Sports Direct relied upon section 30(6A) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 ( TMA 1994), which states that where the proprietor of a registered trade mark issues infringement proceedings, a licensee who has suffered loss may intervene in those proceedings to obtain...

Ministry of Justice ( Mo J) statistics – 25 September 2025 Official statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that open matters in the magistrates' courts were up 6% on the previous quarter and 25% year-on-year, reaching a peak of 361,027. In parallel, the Crown Courts backlog climbed to a record 78,329 cases by the end of June 2025, extending the upward pattern evident since the first quarter of 2023. Between April and June 2025, more than 30,000 cases entered the Crown Court, the highest tally recorded since 2016. The open caseload increased by 2% from the prior quarter, when it was 76,811, and by 10% compared with a year earlier, up from 70,893. The figures also show a record 19,164 cases had been open for a year or more, making up 26% of all Crown Court open cases......

Overriding principles The DMCC’s core requirement is that a product’s “total price” must be shown prominently in every invitation to purchase ( ITP). ( For what constitutes an ITP, see here.) The total price covers all amounts the consumer will inevitably pay, which therefore includes any compulsory delivery charges. There is a limited DMCC exception. Where, owing to the nature of the product, a compulsory delivery charge cannot reasonably be worked out in advance, every ITP must explain how that charge will be calculated. This explanation must appear with the same prominence as the total price and must enable the consumer to determine the overall cost. Typically, equal prominence means placing this information beside or immediately below the total price. Before relying on this carve‑out, traders should be satisfied that the compulsory delivery charge genuinely cannot be calculated beforehand. The CMA has indicated that the...

The Data ( Use and Access) Act 2025 ( DUAA 2025) The Data ( Use and Access) Act 2025 ( DUAA 2025) secured Royal Assent on 19 June 2025, with DSIT (the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) billing it as a new law that will ‘make life easier’. The Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) similarly notes it ‘offer[s] you an opportunity to do things differently’. What key changes are introduced by the DUAA 2025? Many provisions in DUAA 2025 are to be brought into effect by secondary legislation made by the Secretary of State. Commencement No 1, described as stage one, has already appeared and is unrelated to data protection. Stage three, scheduled six months after Royal Assent—ie, 19 December—will trigger the commencement of the principal amendments to data protection legislation in DUAA 2025, Part 5. An immediate shift took place on the day of Royal...

Mergers Constellation Developments Limited/ ABVR Holdings Limited meets the test for reference to phase 2 The CMA has concluded that the completed purchase by Constellation Developments Limited ( Constellation) of ABVER Holdings Limited ( Austin Bradley) meets the threshold required for a phase 2 reference under its test. Constellation sits within a broader group engaged in used vehicle remarketing and retail across the UK and Europe. It owns British Car Limited, a business-to-business ( B2B) used vehicle auction operator, and We Buy Any Car Limited (trading as webuyanycar), a consumer car-buying service......

The High Court ruled earlier in September 2025 that unqualified employees cannot conduct litigation, even under the supervision of a qualified lawyer The High Court’s early September 2025 ruling bars unqualified staff from conducting litigation, even when overseen by a qualified lawyer. The move has unsettled the legality of passing litigation tasks to paralegals and trainees. Victoria Morrison- Hughes, managing director of Integral Legal Costs and vice-chair of the Association of Costs Lawyers, cautioned that the sector is gripped by significant fear, as everyday working practices could now breach the law and leave both employers and employees at risk of committing a criminal offence. She noted the impact is already being felt across the industry, with widespread and growing concern. The decision of 16 September 2025 arose from a dispute between Charles Russell Speechlys LLP and clients Julia Mazur and Jerome Stuart, after the pair failed to...

Re Madagascar Oil Limited [2025] EWHC 2129 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Madagascar Oil is poised to carry notable consequences for restructuring practitioners and insolvency litigators. First, it stands as a rare yet effective instance of a ‘cram across’, where an approving class was employed to force a plan on a dissenting class of equal priority, demonstrating that cross‑class imposition can still succeed in appropriate circumstances. Only one other ‘cram across’ has been recorded: Re Sino‑ Ocean Group Holding Ltd [2025] EWHC 205 ( Ch). Although Sino‑ Ocean came before Petrofac, Madagascar Oil achieved a ‘cram across’ notwithstanding the significant constraints the Court of Appeal imposed on the cramdown jurisdiction. Second, the judgment shows that granting a dissenting creditor participation in future revenues, or alternative ‘synthetic equity’ within a plan, can evidence that the Plan...

At Southwark Crown Court, the SFO intends to tell a judge that the US$7.7m taken from a former Petrobras executive is tied to the vast corruption affair that swept through Brazil. Mario Ildeu de Miranda, the ex-oil and gas executive, maintains the funds in his accounts derive from lawful earnings after he left Petrobras in 2003, when he set up as an oil and gas adviser. This matter marks the first appeal by the subject of an SFO account forfeiture order, placing the agency’s civil recovery toolkit under scrutiny. According to Nick Barnard, a partner at Corker Binning LLP, the SFO brings fewer cases of this sort because its caseload often features major probes centred on corporates, yet situations like this demonstrate a readiness to use these powers when appropriate. In recent years, the SFO has been successful in reclaiming criminal proceeds. The agency has...

Armstrong (as trustee in bankruptcy of Vanessa Temblett) v Temblett (bankrupt) and another [2025] EWHC 1649 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment offers several practical takeaways for practitioners. Foremost, it reinforces the potency of the statutory presumption in IA 1986, s 335A(3). The judge placed significant weight on that presumption when granting the relief sought. In the absence of exceptional circumstances, creditors’ interests are treated as prevailing over all other factors, even where any proceeds from bringing the application would be entirely absorbed by the trustee’s costs and expenses. Once the one-year bankruptcy period has elapsed, there is very limited scope for a bankrupt to avoid such an order being made by the court. The decision also illustrates how an uncooperative bankrupt can cause disproportionate costs and substantial delay in the realisation of assets. This is especially pertinent in the...

Consultation background On 26 August 2025, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs ( Defra), supported by the Environment Agency ( EA), opened the consultation on Modernising Environmental Permitting for Industry. It invites views on reforms to update the environmental permitting framework for the industry and energy sectors, presenting what is billed as a once-in-a-generation programme of change. Focusing on the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 ( EPR 2016), SI 2016/1154, the consultation addresses a range of “industrial” activities, including: installations; medium combustion plants and specified generators; small waste incineration plants; solvent emission activities; Part B mobile plants; and mobile medium combustion plants. Although the portrayal of a once-in-a-generation reform package is somewhat bold, the announcement itself was far from surprising. It arrives shortly after the government’s Corry Review of April 2025, which recommended revising the EPR 2016 to...

Mergers The Commission approved: the purchase of exclusive control of Spectris plc by KKR & Co Inc. ...

The Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) reported that KP Law Ltd, a group action claims specialist, and Glasgow-based full-service practice Jones Whyte Law Ltd, had presented misleading details in promotions inviting consumers to join compensation claims over an alleged Arnold Clark data breach. Under KP Law’s contract, clients could be responsible for costs in situations the regulator judged consumers would not reasonably anticipate. As an illustration, if a client withdrew from the agreement yet subsequently succeeded with the claim, the terms permitted KP Law to levy a success fee regardless. The ASA also found that a claim sign-up web page failed to set out KP Law’s charges and the method by which they were calculated, and omitted explanations of the scenarios in which consumers might be liable for costs in some circumstances......

What are the most significant changes introduced by the Act that pension scheme trustees need to prepare for? The most notable reforms in the Act that trustees should be ready for are: Data subject complaints: complaints about the handling of personal data must be acknowledged within 30 days and answered without undue delay. ICO enforcement powers: the Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) now has authority to compel interviews and require the production of documents to assess compliance. Data subject access requests ( DSARs): the Act codifies the ICO’s existing guidance, meaning (i) trustees must apply a ‘reasonable and proportionate’ search standard when responding; and (ii) the ‘stop the clock’ rule pauses the one-month deadline for a response. Automated decision making ( ADM): the Act allows reliance on the full set of lawful bases — including ‘legitimate interests’ — when...

Fatolahzadeh v London Borough of Barnet [2025] EWCA Civ 1174 What are the practical implications of this case? Regarding the nature of the HA 1996, s 189A assessment duty, the Court of Appeal affirmed these points: local authorities ought to take a collaborative stance with applicants a housing needs assessment does not have to be set out within a single document whether the obligation to produce a lawful housing needs assessment and/or personal housing plan has been met is determined by considering the housing file as a whole, as a reasonable and sensible housing officer would view it On wider principles about the legal effects of alleged failures to comply with HA 1996, s 189A, and the nature, scope and role of HA 1996, s 202 review rights: section 202 does not confer a blanket entitlement to request a general review where an applicant is unhappy with the approach or...

Golden Adventure Shipping stated in a defence lodged with the High Court on 7 July 2025, and only recently disclosed, that Berytus must indemnify because a succession of rocket strikes by the Houthis, the Islamist political and military group, did not fall within the policy exclusion definitions for war or terrorism. It maintained that the 2024 attacks, which followed the onset of Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, were not politically motivated as defined by the policy, since the Houthis were not attempting to effect a change of policy ‘in the state at which the act was directed’. The defence also rejects, to the extent it is alleged, that the Houthi attacks on Israel were aimed at deterring Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, asserting the Houthis had no reasonable basis to expect their actions would achieve that...

Mergers The Commission approved the establishment of a joint venture by Meta Platforms, Inc and Reliance Industries Limited ( M.12070) after a phase I review—see further, Midday Express. The Commission received notifications in: Ergo/ ASG/ BVV/ SPN ( M.12098) (simplified merger procedure) AAR/ Air France/ Xcelle Americas JV ( M.11887) (simplified merger procedure) AAR/ Air France/ Xcelle Asia JV ( M.11886) (simplified merger procedure) NOTE— For all live merger investigations before the Commission, see EU mergers—ongoing cases tracker. Upcoming dates: For the timetable of forthcoming EU competition developments, see EU Competition calendar......

R ( Anisa Begum) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2025] EWCA Civ 1049 What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment distils the method for assessing indirect discrimination claims, beginning with pinning down the proper PCP. That frames the inquiry ahead. Under Eq A 2010, s 19, a PCP is envisaged as one that can be imposed upon people. Although the terms ‘provision, practice or criterion’ were designed to be wide and overlapping, a PCP is, by its nature, something that differentiates between groups. Accordingly, practitioners contending that an information‑gathering exercise is discriminatory must clearly articulate how the collection of that data results in different cohorts of people being treated differently. The ruling also serves as a reminder that, for indirect discrimination to be made out, the claimant must show a causal connection between the PCP and the...

The EU’s executive reported that Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden had not ensured access to data on the beneficial ownership of trusts and other entities by the July 2025 cut-off. According to the European Commission, as of now 11 Member States have yet to confirm their full transposition by this initial legal deadline. It added that phasing in the sixth AML directive is crucial to avoiding weaknesses in their financial systems and......

Chubb European Group SE In a filing dated 30 July 2025, only recently disclosed, Chubb European Group SE contended that a cohort of 23 reinsurers should either meet or share the insurance outlay Chubb owes to aircraft lessors, including Aer Cap Ireland Ltd and Merx Aviation. The liability arises from a fresh judgment in a sprawling trial addressing responsibility for aircraft left in Russia after the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. High Court Judge Christopher Butcher’s decision leaves Chubb responsible for US$5.7m to compensate the lessors’ losses. However, Chubb asserts in its new submission that, under the ruling, the lessors’ initial recourse ought to have been to the group of war risk reinsurers that provided the cover......

The UK’s largest bank is deploying automated systems to spot fraud under the UK offence that came into force on 1 September 2025. Among them is Google AML AI, built with Google, which scans some 900 million transactions every month across 40 million customer accounts. Jennifer Calvery, HSBC’s group head of financial crime, told Law360 that Google AML AI and other automation help underpin the bank’s defence to the “failure to prevent fraud” offence. The legislation exposes companies to criminal action where preventative controls are judged inadequate, and major lenders such as HSBC fall within scope. The regime captures businesses meeting any two of the following three tests: More than 250 employees Turnover above £36m Assets of £18m or more HSBC's multi-tier strategy Calvery said strong leadership, staff training programmes and sharing intelligence across the industry are just as critical. Before joining HSBC, she held a...