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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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Industry representatives told the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee that imposing compulsory quotas for UK private market assets on pension funds could lead to unintended consequences. They were commenting on the Mansion House Accord, under which 17 pension providers agreed with HM Treasury on 13 May 2025 to assign 10% of portfolios to infrastructure and clean energy by 2030. Around 5% of that allocation will be directed to UK holdings. The government expects this to deliver an additional £25bn in domestic investment over the period clearly set out in the agreement......
Automatic enrolment built a nation of savers TPR said pension schemes should deliver better choices for savers at the decumulation stage, when people first gain access to their retirement pots. The regulator issued this warning after research commissioned by the Pensions Policy Institute ( PPI) revealed that 70% of Britons withdraw all their defined contribution ( DC) retirement savings without taking professional advice or guidance. ( See: TPR commissions PPI report on DC decumulation risk: unified industry action sought to enhance retirement support, LNB News 15/05/2025 10) Patrick Coyne, interim director of policy at TPR, said automatic enrolment had created a nation of savers. He added: Now we must move from a......
R ( Glaister and Carr) v Assistant Coroner for North Wales [2025] EWHC 1018 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision marks yet another reported instance stemming from an unintentional infringement of the court embargo concerning the circulation of draft reserved judgments. The ruling is notably useful and instructive, particularly in acknowledging the presence of both the court embargo and the journalism embargo, and in underlining the key distinctions between them. It also explains why the court embargo matters and why departures from it constitute serious misconduct, articulating the rationale that supports the embargo regime. In addition, the judgment painstakingly analyses the steps taken by the individuals involved in disseminating the confidential embargoed draft judgment ( CEDJ), pinpointing the precise breaches so as to provide guidance for the future. Taken together, these features offer clear instruction on the...
Original news stories: DWP press release: £1,000 retirement savings boost from plans to bring together small pension pots DWP: Small Pots Delivery Group Report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/small-pots-delivery-group-report Since automatic enrolment began in 2012, millions of UK employees have been putting money aside for retirement. While it is generally regarded as a major success overall, a notable issue has surfaced: the growth of small, deferred DC pension pots. This often arises when someone is enrolled into a pension scheme and soon moves to a new role, leaving behind a modest pot of savings that may not be accessed for many years. In theory, savers can transfer that pot to their next employer’s scheme or a personal plan, but the evidence shows this is not happening at the scale needed to prevent the problem from expanding. The DWP’s figures indicate there are now 22.9 million deferred DC pots under £10,000 and 13...
Mergers The CMA has released the complete wording of its phase 1 clearance ruling, confirming clearance under the de minimis exception for proposed purchase by Keysight Technologies, Inc......
What are the practical implications of this case? In DSD v MJW [2025] EWFC 119 ( B), the court demonstrates how the wide guiding principles for maintenance pending suit ( MPS) function in practice. Where intervention is not clearly necessary, the bid will fail; where it is, reasonableness becomes the controlling measure (para [22]). The judgment sets out typical situations where MPS is properly warranted, including: imminent homelessness; loss of employment with no capital to rely upon; and a categorical refusal to continue established financial support to a vulnerable spouse, etc (para [11]). The decision is also a practical touchstone for those advising financial remedy clients beyond the ‘big money’ arena. DDJ Hodson gives pragmatic direction and highlights creative answers, such as using capital assets to satisfy MPS claims where suitable (para [23]). The need to put forward proposals—and the associated costs consequences of doing so...
Antitrust Commission consults on commitments offered by Microsoft in ‘ Teams tying’ investigation The Commission has opened a market test of voluntary measures proposed by Microsoft to resolve worries that it leveraged its dominant position by bundling its communications and collaboration service, Teams, with its widely adopted Office 365 and Microsoft 365 productivity packages. Teams is a cloud-based solution that brings together chat, voice calls, video meetings and file-sharing, and forms part of Microsoft’s enterprise Saa S productivity suites. Those suites combine several tools, including Word, Outlook and Excel. Since Teams’ debut in 2017, Microsoft has shipped it as the default component within its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 business plans. In July 2023, the Commission initiated a formal probe after complaints from Slack Technologies and alfaview Gmb H. In June 2024, its preliminary view was that Microsoft holds a dominant position in the global...
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme ( FSCS) On 13 May 2025, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ( FSCS) stated it will look at a broader set of claims to pay compensation to affected Wealth Tek clients who have not obtained the £85,000 per person, per firm cap. ( See Practice Note: The Financial Services Compensation Scheme) The body, which reimburses customers of collapsed financial firms, confirmed it has already made ‘substantial progress’ in paying back claims linked to Wealth Tek. The firm is in special administration—a specialised insolvency process—see News Analysis: Distribution plan approval under the Investment Bank Special Administration Regime ( Re Wealthtek LLP). FSCS added that it now wishes to begin assessing whether investors could have further categories of claim......
RP v Barnsley Metropolitan District Council [2025] UKUT 46 ( AAC) What are the practical implications of this case? As Tribunal Judge Mc Carthy recognised when allowing permission to appeal, mistakes such as faulty bundle pagination are a commonplace hazard in tribunal proceedings and would not, in the ordinary run of things, vitiate fairness. That RP was able to persuade the Upper Tribunal that, in her particular circumstances, they did affect the fairness is notable and will no doubt galvanise practitioners to ensure bundles are clearly, correctly, and consistently paginated, all the more in matters where parents attend without representation. Further, the expectation that revised EHCPs would be issued shortly should not have dissuaded the First-tier Tribunal from directing the necessary alterations to the plans then in force. What was......
Forsyth v Howson and another company [2025] EWHC 653 ( KB) What are the practical implications of the case? The decision spotlights whether a claimant with capacity can be forced to disclose privileged settlement advice. Currently, no procedure exists to mandate such disclosure, and the judge did not take it further. Consequently, the defendant could not thrust court approval on a capacitous claimant. The judge noted that, although parties crave finality and fear any settlement might unravel, if the claimant does have litigation capacity the compromise will not be set aside and judicial approval would have been redundant. The case therefore emphasises respecting a claimant’s autonomy where capacity is present, and urges defendants to proceed warily before seeking approval contrary to the claimant’s wishes, especially at a point in the proceedings when additional evidence about financial capacity is still...
A tribunal on 16 May 2025 confirmed that the NCA’s belief that Mohammed Butt and Mahfooz Begum obtained their income through money laundering stands as correct, and it upheld an earlier court’s decision. The authority said it had sufficient proof drawn from the couple’s lifestyle choices set against their publicly declared earnings. Butt was detained in 2012 on suspicion of money laundering linked to an organised crime group, the ruling noted. He was not charged because there was insufficient evidence, the tribunal added. By contrast, two of his brothers, as well as his two sons, were prosecuted and found guilty of money laundering and drug trafficking offences, according to the judgment......
Organised under the ten pillars of the statutory Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 ( EIP 2023), the report outlines multilateral progress alongside notable and key regional and domestic shifts in environmental protection law. It emphasises major regional and national developments in environmental protection legislation. Its publication aims to keep post- Brexit UK attentive to its international environmental law obligations and to keep domestic regulation at the forefront of global best practice as intended. This approach should guard against a parochial stance and stop UK environmental law lagging behind other nations and regions as new global norms emerge, rather than narrowing in outlook. Who has published this report and why published now? Defra issued the International Environmental Protection Report under section 21 of the Environment Act 2021, which obliges the Secretary of State (‘ So S’) to provide a report every two years on...
The revisions signal a broader reset towards 'focus, fairness, and efficiency', highlighting the DOJ’s intention to collaborate with law-abiding companies rather than penalise them indiscriminately. This shift is intended to foster cooperation, not blanket punishment. Galeotti detailed updates across three corporate enforcement frameworks: a simplified voluntary self-disclosure policy; stricter limits on corporate monitorships; new whistleblower priorities linked to national security and financial crime. Each change underscores the DOJ’s ongoing concentration on serious criminal conduct - especially links to cartels and other transnational criminal organisations, state actors, and fraud against Americans - while giving companies clearer incentives and guardrails to navigate enforcement. As Galeotti put it, the mission is to prosecute criminals, not compliant businesses. Effective white-collar work, he noted, depends on focus, fairness, and efficiency - principles that will guide Criminal Division prosecutors going...
Re K and Re S ( Legal Aid: Experts’ Fees) [2025] EWFC 100 What are the practical implications of this case? In his judgment, President Mc Farlane set out the LAA’s amended guidance, alongside general principles to follow when instructing experts who propose a higher charging rate or a greater number of hours than those stipulated in the LAA guidelines, and he supplied model wording for court orders addressing this issue. Moving forward, practitioners must now demonstrate, in any application to the LAA for prior authority where experts’ fees exceed the stated hourly rates or hours, that the case’s complexity demands an expert of high seniority, or that the material is so specialised and unusual that only a very small number of experts are available to report. The updated guidance also permits reliance on additional criteria, namely the total cost of the work, the speed at which it...
HM Land Registry ( HMLR) has issued a blog post revealing two new upgrades to its portal service, intended to enhance user experience by saving time and offering clearer updates on application progress. Portal users are now......
In this issue: Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Useful information Cross border criminal investigations The limits of double criminality in the Supreme Court Case of El- Khouri v Government of the United States In this matter, the Supreme Court examined section 137 of the Extradition Act 2003 ( EA 2003) and the double criminality requirement, assessing whether the conduct allegedly attributed to the requested individual amounts to an extradition offence. During that analysis, the court reviewed and...
Background The narrative in Santander UK Plc v CCP Graduate School Ltd [2025] EWHC 667 ( KB) is a textbook example of APP fraud. CCP moved just under £416,000 from its Nat West Bank Plc account to an account at Santander. It asserted that it had fallen prey to an APP fraud, whereby payers are duped into approving transfers to an impostor’s account masquerading as a genuine beneficiary. During September and October 2016, CCP executed 15 transfers from its account to a Santander account in the name of PGW Consultants Ltd, believing PGW to be an authentic recipient. Each payment was sent in line with directions supplied to CCP by the fraudsters. After the monies landed in the Santander account, the fraudsters then swept the funds out. In its defence, Santander explained that, after PGW made a further transfer to an account at Lloyds Bank Plc,...
This edition covers: Commercial Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Financial services Energy Environment Insurance and reinsurance IP Life sciences TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Commercial Court of Justice of the EU rules on (un)fairness of profit-sharing clause in minor athlete’s contract In a significant judgment, the Court of Justice has confirmed that EU consumer protection rules extend to agreements with minors in the sports arena. A term requiring a young sportsperson to surrender a portion of future earnings to a talent agency upon turning professional can be classed as unfair under Directive 93/13/ EEC (the EU UTCCD) where it is not clear and comprehensible about the financial impact of the promise made. Staying consistent with its consumer...
EUIPO Executive Director João Negrão informed the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs that it is sensible to look at extending the EUIPO’s current mediation centre to cover copyright disputes, alongside its alternative dispute resolution services for parties embroiled in trade mark and design conflicts. ‘ I believe that would serve everyone’s interests,’ Negrão stated. He observed that the office would have to broaden the regulatory basis for the centre, yet said he is ‘more than willing’ to examine the idea. Negrão was appearing before......
FTT holds that OIGs and AIPs arising in offshore protected trusts are not protected foreign source income ( Louwman v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2025] UKFTT 295 ( TC)) What are the practical implications of this case? This outcome is adverse for former non-domiciled and deemed domiciled individuals who held investments via offshore trusts, including mutual funds that generate OIGs on sale and bond investments that produce AIPs when disposed of through such structures. In effect, the decision means that OIGs and AIPs arising within offshore protected trusts (under the rules in place up to 5 April 2025) are chargeable to tax on the arising basis, rather than being sheltered until distributions are made and matched to the trusts’ capital gains or benefits. From a tax policy perspective, these OIGs and AIPs ought to have been treated as ‘protected foreign source income’—not taxed as they arise, but only when paid out of...
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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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