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Lucasfilm did not benefit in any way at Tyburn Film Productions Ltd's expense, counsel said to the appeals court there on 3 December 2025, in part because it already possessed rights over Cushing's likeness and an agreement and consent from the Cushing estate to 'resurrect' him as Grand Moff Tarkin. Tyburn contends it earlier made an agreement with the late actor then, at the time, granting the company a veto over any use of his image prior to his 1994 death. That contract concerns a TV series titled 'Heritage of Horror', which never aired. Tyburn further asserts the deal permits it to effectively 'resurrect' Cushing using stand-ins and CGI to ultimately finish the programme then if the actor were to die whilst filming remained in progress...
Irish telecom operator Eircom’s damages lawsuit against BT Group over a public-sector contract must be carefully managed to trial to deal with confidentiality issues and other matters, a UK judge told the parties today. At the High Court in London today, a judge said Eircom’s damages action against BT over a public-sector contract needs tight case management through to trial to address confidentiality and related concerns. Eircom brought the claim after Ofcom in 2020 penalised BT for its behaviour during a tender. Speaking to both sides, Judge Adam Johnson urged them to resolve any confidentiality flashpoints themselves and signalled he had no wish to step in unless it became unavoidable. He also expressed confidence that parties would do everything possible to keep confidential designations to a minimum, noting this was necessary to maintain control over the conduct of the trial. He framed this as the
The following document is attached: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/274 dated 5 February 2026, revising Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1981, establishing a final anti-dumping levy on imports of ceramic tableware and kitchenware produced in...
Justice Richard Arnold granted AstraZeneca 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 AstraZeneca 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 AstraZeneca 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 Pharmaceuticals have each begun proceedings in the UK to set...
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Banking & Finance— July 2025 case round-up Ciddy Ltd v Natalia [2025] EWHC 1616 ( Ch) Loan agreement—unenforceable penalty clause The Chancery Division dismissed the bankruptcy petition presented by the petitioner, Anjana Natalia, against the debtor, Ms Ella Vacani. The petitioner sought to recover £657,516.32 said to arise from a loan contract, asserting that the debtor, a professional accountant, had taken legal advice before signing. The debtor, by contrast, maintained that the parties’ relationship was unfair because of unequal understanding, coercive control exerted by her husband, and an excessive default interest rate that, she said, constituted an unenforceable penalty clause. The court identified substantial grounds to challenge the petition, grounded in the debtor’s allegations of an unfair relationship under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and a penalty default term within the agreement. It held that the issues concerning default interest and unfairness were not fanciful and ought to be...
South Square Digest In this issue, Wiliam Willson and Charlotte Ward explore the insolvency consequences of ‘double dip’ transactions. Georgina Peters and Lindsay Hingston ( Freshfields, London) examine the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Kington S.À. R. L.......
State aid Court of Justice rules on Italian reference, finding renewable energy State aid inadmissible The Court of Justice delivered its judgment in Case C‑514/23, Tiberis Holding, a request from Italy as a national reference seeking further guidance on the compatibility with the EU internal market of a domestic scheme designed to encourage, in particular, the generation of power from renewable sources. Background The reference emerged from a dispute between Tiberis Holding Srl ( Tiberis), a hydroelectric power operator, and Gestore dei Servizi Energetici ( GSE), the Italian energy services manager......
Of the countries named in the OECD’s tranche of updates, two— Lithuania and Singapore—do not have any form of accord to recognise pricing decisions reached under Amount B rules in other covered jurisdictions......
Forbes v Interbay Funding Ltd; Forbes and Seculink Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 690 What are the practical implications of this case? The Court of Appeal has reinforced the position of secured lenders seeking to recover the principal balance of a secured borrowing that has been called in, confirming that this principal is outside the scope of an MHCM under the Regulations. The ruling makes clear that the principal of a secured debt is not a ‘moratorium debt’, so secured creditors may continue both to pursue repayment of the principal and to accrue interest during an MHCM, even where the facility has been demanded. By narrowing the debts shielded by a moratorium, the decision offers useful certainty to lenders and debtors alike: it safeguards secured lenders’ enforcement rights, trims back debtor protections under the Regulations, and ensures moratoria do not defer enforcement of secured...
Bilta ( UK) Ltd (in liquidation) and others v Tradition Financial Services Ltd; Nathanael Eurl Ltd (in liquidation) and another v Tradition Financial Services Ltd [2025] UKSC 18 What are the practical implications of this case? Regarding IA 1986, s 213, advisers may take comfort that, as the statute provides, any individual involved in running a fraudulent business falls within the scope of a s 213 claim. The potential pool of defendants to fraudulent trading allegations is, accordingly, without inherent limit, though—as always—intensely dependent on the facts. In practice, this lets liquidators be selective, choosing defendants by likely recoverability as well as their culpability. As for LA 1980, s 32, this judgment underlines that the limitation clock does not stop merely because a company has been dissolved. The baseline position is that claims here framed as breaches of duty must be issued within six years of the...
Antitrust CAT grants CMA warrants to enter and search business premises relating to its supply waste management services investigation The CAT handed down its judgment, dated 13 June 2025, in CMA v Another, concerning the CMA’s application for six search warrants under section 28(1)(b) of the Competition Act 1998. The CAT approved the CMA’s application. Background The CMA sought four warrants pursuant to section 28(1) of the Competition Act 1998 to authorise searches of business premises as part of its investigation into suspected breaches of the Chapter I prohibition, namely an alleged market‑sharing arrangement in the supply of waste management services in at least the North West of England and North Wales. Three undertakings are under suspicion: Gaskells ( North West) Limited ( Gaskells) Ash Waste Services Limited ( Ash) Bagnall & Morris Waste Services Limited ( B& M) Information gathered by the CMA suggests all three provide waste...
Pensions Schemes Newsletter for July 2025 In its July 2025 Pensions Schemes Newsletter, HMRC said it has issued refunds after processing 12,767 claims lodged between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2025 by people overcharged under pension flexibility rules. Since the government introduced retirement saving freedoms in 2015, the cumulative amount repaid for pension overtaxation has climbed to more than £1.4bn. These freedoms permit pension scheme members aged 55 and above to take lump sums or draw flexible payments from their pension savings. However, because of a peculiarity in the tax calculation, many savers are initially charged more tax than they truly owe when they first access their pension pots......
In this issue: Property management Leasing property Residential property Transferring property Investigating title Property insolvency Easements, rights and covenants Property development Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Property management Building Safety Act 2022 and recoverability of service charges In Adriatic Land 5 Ltd v Long Leaseholders at Hippersley Point [2025] EWCA Civ 856, the Court of Appeal considered whether paragraph 9 of Schedule 8 to the Building Safety Act 2022 ( BSA 2022) operates retrospectively so as to bar landlords from passing on specified service charge liabilities to holders of qualifying leases. By majority, the court also concluded the pertinent BSA 2022 provisions have retroactive effect. Consequently, a landlord is prohibited from recouping certain expenditure incurred before BSA 2022 came into force on 28 June 2022 from...
In this issue: Key developments and materials Electricity and gas market regulation and licensing Networks and network connections Renewable energy Capacity Market, balancing services and energy system Planning issues in energy projects International energy Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Key developments and materials Access secured to six market-leading energy law titles We are pleased to confirm that we have recently broadened our Lexis+ Legal Research service significantly by obtaining an exclusive licence from Globe Law and Business to host six market-leading energy law titles. We are presently integrating links to these works currently within the relevant Practical Guidance located in the Energy module on Lexis+......
In this issue: Arbitration in England & Wales International arbitration Investment treaty arbitration Institutional and ad hoc arbitration Other arbitration and ADR-related news and developments Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Useful information Arbitration in England & Wales Arbitration Act 2025 fully in force 1 August 2025 The Arbitration Act 2025 ( AA 2025) will come fully into effect on 1 August 2025 (see LNB News 24/07/2025 14). Practitioners should be aware that the amendments to the Arbitration Act 1996 ( AA 1996) set out in sections 1–14 of the 2025 Act will not apply to: arbitral proceedings begun before 1 August 2025 court proceedings (whenever started) connected to pre-commencement arbitral proceedings or to an award from such proceedings any other court proceedings commenced before 1 August 2025 (see AA 2025, s...
Batra v Castle Trust Capital Plc and another [2025] EWHC 1555 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Batra v Castle affirms the strong presumption against the court ordering a stay of bankruptcy proceedings while any appeal by the bankrupt against the bankruptcy order is pending determination. Adopting the approach in Foster v Davenport (2011) (unreported), as cited in Tyschenko v Hyde [2024] EWHC 838 ( Ch), the court reiterated and applied that position. These authorities make plain that a stay will be entertained only in exceptional circumstances—that is, where there are substantial grounds of appeal and the applicant establishes that an order of bankruptcy would cause irreparable harm. As a result, debtors must put forward, and properly evidence, every viable point at the hearing of the bankruptcy petition itself, rather than reserving arguments for later. Once a bankruptcy order has been made,...
In a statement issued on 26 July 2025, the German global insurer confirmed that cyber criminals had accessed personally identifiable information concerning the majority of Allianz Life’s customers, financial professionals, and select Allianz Life employees, after leveraging a social engineering tactic. Social engineering centres on manipulating people into actions that weaken their security, such as: transferring money revealing sensitive information The parent company of the North American business said it acted immediately following the 16 July 2025 breach to contain and mitigate the......
In this issue: Patents Trade marks/passing off Copyright & associated rights IP and technology Confidential Information Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Patents UPC hands down first UK-covering injunction in Kodak dispute. Law360, London: The Unified Patent Court ( UPC) has exercised its broad reach by granting an unprecedented injunction spanning Britain, blocking Kodak from selling printing plates that infringe the UK designation of Fujifilm’s European patent. See: UPC issues first injunction covering UK in Kodak case. Astellas defeats bid by generics to overturn cancer drug patent. Law360: In Accord Healthcare Ltd v The Regents of the University of California [2025] EWCA Civ 936, on 23 July 2025, attempts by generic manufacturers to persuade a London appellate judge to lift the remaining...
Another provision of the Companies ( Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024 (the 2024 Act) came into force last week, on 16 July 2025. Section 22 introduces revised wording into section 363 of the Companies Act 2014 (the 2014 Act). Previously, a company automatically forfeited its audit exemption after its first failure to file an annual return. The amended section 363 now affords these small companies a second chance......
In this issue: Key DR developments Claims and remedies Costs and funding Injunctions Litigation Settlement New content Dates for your diary Useful information Daily and weekly news alerts Key DR developments CPR updates 185th Practice Direction update—online claims—in force on 18 July 2025: The Master of the Rolls and the Minister of State for Justice have executed the 185th Practice Direction ( PD) update to the Civil Procedure Rules ( CPR), which came into force on 18 July 2025. This update alters CPR PD 51R ( Online Civil Money Claims ( OCMC)) and CPR PD 51ZB ( Damages Claims Pilot), inserting a new provision on fixed costs within CPR PD 51R. Both pilot schemes have also been extended by a further 12 months and will now run until 1 October 2026. For further detail, see: LNB News...
On 30 July 2025, a press statement, the Corporate Strategy (2025–2028) and Corporate Plan for 2025/26 were issued, where TPO said it would consider legislative changes to help it raise further funds. TPO, an independent non-governmental body that handles the investigation and resolution of complaints and disputes about the administration and management of workplace and personal pension schemes, is financed by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP). The DWP recovers these funds through a general levy on pension schemes administered by the Pensions Regulator......
Ciddy Ltd v Natalia [2025] EWHC 1616 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Ciddy v Natalia will be of keen interest to practitioners acting for both lenders and borrowers, as it affirms that a debtor may resist a bankruptcy petition grounded on a credit agreement where the contractual terms are capable of being impugned, or where the character of the relationship arising from that agreement can properly be attacked as unfair. That conclusion applies whether the challenge is aimed at the small print itself or at the fairness of the dealings generated by the agreement between the parties. The judgment underscores that lenders must stay alive to how they treat borrowers on an individual basis, attending to borrower-specific circumstances throughout the borrowing journey, from initial arrangement through to enforcement. It also stands as a clear reminder that clauses imposing a high...
In this issue: WTO Trade in goods Anti-dumping Subsidies and countervailing measures Free trade agreements Customs Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content WTO WTO publishes agenda for July 2025 DSB meeting The World Trade Organization ( WTO) Secretariat has issued an airgram setting out the draft agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body meeting on 25 July 2025. Members will consider compliance reports from the US, the EU and Indonesia across seven disputes, including US anti-dumping duties on Japanese steel, EU biotech product authorisations and palm oil limits, and Indonesia’s import curbs. The docket also features a proposal to appoint Appellate Body members, backed by more than 100 WTO members. See: LNB News 23/07/2025 10. WTO outlines reform roadmap ahead of 2026 Ministerial Conference The WTO reported strong participation in early consultations on...
How are current UK laws addressing the distinction between private and rental e-scooter use and what (if any) legal grey areas still exist? Relying on a strand of older authorities, e-scooters and comparable micromobility devices are treated as 'motor vehicles' under section 185(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 ( RTA 1988). Authorities include Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police v Saddington [2000] Lexis Citation 3984, DPP v King [2008] EWHC 447 ( Admin), and Coates v Crown Prosecution Service [2011] EWHC 2032 ( Admin). The consequence is that riders require insurance and a driving licence, and the machine must be registered, display number plates, and satisfy construction regulations. Realistically, fulfilling these obligations is not possible. Therefore, privately owned e-scooters may only be used on private land with the landowner’s permission. During the Pandemic, the Electric Scooter Trials and Traffic Signs (...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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