Legal News

What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers a welcome confirmation that the legal tests for granting security for costs to a defendant under Order 23 rule 1 RHC apply equally to a bid to set aside an arbitral award under section 81(1) AO, as recognised in P1 v D ( Arbitration: Security for Costs) [2024] 5 HKLRD 699 (not reported by Lexis Nexis®UK). That equivalence underscores the Hong Kong Courts’ endorsement of arbitration, ensuring challenges to awards are not advanced lightly. The reasoning serves as a recap of the principles distilled in Hong Kong Court authorities. Those authorities emphasise that the court enjoys an unfettered discretion to direct security for costs which, as Mimmie Chan J did, must be evaluated by reference to all the circumstances of the case and by employing a broad brush approach to costs. As...

Tik Tok owner Byte Dance Tik Tok’s parent Byte Dance could be hit with a fine as early as next week by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, after an investigation into whether users’ information was sent to China, a commissioner at the authority told MLex. Des Hogan, a commissioner at the Irish DPC, said in a Washington interview on the sidelines of a conference that action on Tik Tok would come within the next few weeks. He also added the DPC has circulated its draft ruling to fellow data protection authorities across the 27-nation EU and has received no objections. Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation’s Article......

Gary Quillan v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 421 ( TC) The taxpayer, sole director of a company placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation, saw a liquidator appointed. At that point, his director’s loan account with the company was overdrawn by £439,954. The liquidator demanded repayment in full; after stating he lacked the resources to discharge the sum and, following extensive correspondence, the director proposed a settlement of £57,500. That figure was remitted by instalments, and the liquidator’s report confirmed that no further funds were expected to flow into the liquidation in this respect. Only £57,500 was ultimately recovered. Consequently, when the company was finally dissolved, the remaining balance on the loan account was £382,456. HMRC subsequently opened an enquiry into the director’s tax return and assessed him to income tax on the outstanding balance pursuant to ITTOIA 2005, s 415(1). Under that provision, where a close...

India Glycols Ltd and others v Texan Minerals and Chemicals LLC [2025] SGHC 28 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment stands as an uncommon instance of an arbitral tribunal overstepping its mandate when issuing its decision. It explains the different materials a court consults to delineate the scope of the parties’ submission to arbitration—such as pleadings, the agreed list of issues, opening statements, the evidence adduced and closing submissions—and also distils the framework for assessing whether the tribunal has exceeded its jurisdiction. The decision reiterates that a tribunal’s jurisdiction reaches only as far as the matters the parties have actually referred to arbitration. Where multiple claims, founded on distinct bases, are advanced against separate respondents, parties must keep precise track of which respondent each claim targets. In that vein, practitioners should take particular care to keep claims properly...

Subsidy control The Subsidy Advice Unit has issued its concluding report, offering guidance to the Department for Business and Trade on its planned network subsidy for Post Office Limited—see also the final report in full. Note— For every matter notified to the Subsidy Advice Unit under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, please consult the UK subsidy control—ongoing cases tracker. Upcoming dates: for forthcoming UK competition milestones, refer to the UK Competition calendar......

' There are now more small pension pots The Department for Work and Pensions says there are around 13 million long-term savings accounts holding under £1,000, with roughly another million set up each year as staff move between jobs. It has backed the introduction of ‘multiple default consolidators’, authorised master trusts charged with gathering up these neglected pension pots and combining them for savers. The government believes the approach could add about £1,000 to workers’ savings while trimming administration costs for the pension sector by around £225m......

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ( CCPC) has unveiled a fresh process for settling administrative competition law investigations and cases. From September 2023, the CCPC, acting via independent adjudication officers, may determine that a business has infringed competition law and levy financial penalties of up to 10% of the undertaking’s global annual turnover or €10m, whichever amount is higher. Under the new Settlement Procedure, the CCPC may accept the application of a lowered monetary penalty where a business acknowledges a breach of competition law and consents to a simplified process to bring the investigation to a close. The CCPC and the business may likewise agree any measures that the business will be......

Mergers The Commission approved: the takeover conferring joint control of Green Epic Topco Holdings LP by Leonard Green and Partners LP and Apax Partners LLP ( M.11947), following a phase I enquiry—see further, Midday Express the acquisition of sole control of AXA Investment Managers S. A. by BNP Paribus S. A. ( M.11828), following a phase I enquiry—see further, Midday Express the combination of Amcor plc with Berry Global Group, Inc. ( M.11889), following a phase I enquiry—see further, Midday Express the purchase leading to joint control of Triumph Group, Inc by Warburg Pincus LLC and Berkshire Partners LLC ( M.11937), following a phase I enquiry—see further, Midday Express the formation of a joint venture by Metinvest BV and Danieli & C. ......

Patrick Coyne, TPR’s interim policy director, admitted during a speech that 'things were not always perfect' in its regime for assessing superfunds. Superfunds are a new kind of consolidation vehicle, allowing multiple defined benefit ( DB) plans to be pooled so they can be run at a lower cost. To date, TPR has approved only one DB superfund— Clara- Pensions—under interim regulations introduced in 2020. Another company seeking approval to launch a superfund was ultimately forced to mothball the project, complaining of opaque expectations and asserting that TPR had moved the goalposts......

CCPC outlines competition concerns in preliminary assessment of Circle K/ Pelco deal. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ( CCPC) has issued a preliminary assessment to the parties involved in the planned purchase of Pelco Holdings Ltd by Ard Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Circle K Ireland Holding Ltd ( M/24/042). The assessment outlines the CCPC’s preliminary concerns regarding how the proposed acquisition might reduce competition in the retail motor fuel sector overall. As this is only a preliminary assessment, and not a final decision, the parties may now also formally reply in writing, deliver oral submissions, and further get......

Digital markets Commission publishes its second annual report on the Digital Markets Act The Commission has released its second annual report to the Council and the European Parliament on the Digital Markets Act ( DMA), outlining its work during 2024. Under Article 35, the Commission must provide a yearly account of how the DMA is being implemented and the progress towards its aims. This second report details 2024 DMA activities, including the conclusion of four market investigations......

Merger control The CMA has formally issued its decision to accept undertakings in lieu of referring the matter to a phase 2 investigation, relating to the completed purchase by Topps Tiles Plc of selected assets from Tildist Realisations Limited (formerly CTD Tiles Limited)—see further, the CMA decision to accept undertakings in lieu of reference. NOTE— For all live mergers currently before the CMA, see further, UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker Subsidy control The Subsidy Advice Unit has accepted a request to produce an advisory report offering advice to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero regarding its proposed subsidy to Great British Energy—see further, case page. NOTE— For all decisions referred to the Subsidy Advice Unit under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, see further, UK subsidy control—ongoing cases tracker for details Upcoming dates For dates of forthcoming UK competition developments, see further, the UK Competition calendar......

Brief appeal set out below. Case number T-92/25...

The SFO has charged United Insurance Brokers with failing to prevent its associates from paying bribes in Ecuador—the first time the agency is preparing to go to trial over the adequacy of a company's compliance programmes. Experts say the case also signals—amid debate over the SFO’s priorities and doubts about the near‑term trajectory of international corruption inquiries—that the agency remains firmly engaged in tackling bribery at home and abroad today. Jonah Anderson, a partner at White & Case LLP, noted that although there now appear to be fewer bribery prosecutions than five or ten years ago and the global environment is shifting, the SFO continues to act as a vigorous corporate bribery enforcer. The UK’s anti‑bribery regime renders companies criminally responsible if they fail to stop employees or associated persons from making illicit payments to secure business in the UK or anywhere in the world. Since its...

Cadent Gas Ltd v City Fibre Ltd [2025] EWHC 910 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling means a significant volume of low-value street work claims must be decided by the county courts, rather than by arbitrators with specialist familiarity with such claims. The judge arrived at this conclusion with some reluctance and, recognising the need for an effective route for resolving this category of claim, granted permission to appeal. He observed that the mean period for small claims in London and the South East to reach trial is now 67 weeks, a point he expressly noted in his judgment as context......

Telecom Business Solution, Llc v Terra Towers Corp No. 22-1761, SD NY, 2025 US Dist US Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York has imposed coercive sanctions: US$10,000 per day to begin against certain parties in May 2025, and US$20,000 per day against other parties starting in June 2025, with each fine set to double every fourteen days until the contempt is cured. Telecoms dispute The dispute centres on a shareholders agreement ( SHA) binding the shareholders and investors in Continental Towers LATAM Holdings Ltd, a telecommunications infrastructure company that owns and operates telecommunication towers and related assets across Latin America. The minority investors are Telecom Business Solution Llc and LATAM Towers Llc—both Delaware entities backed and financed by Peppertree Capital Management—and AMLQ Holdings ( Cay) Ltd, a Cayman Islands entity funded by Goldman Sachs & Co Llc...

Okuashvili and others companies v Ivanishvili and others; Allied Global Tobacco Ltd and others v JSC Tbilisi Tobacco and others [2025] EWHC 829 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment functions as a thorough digest of the legal principles governing jurisdictional challenges—especially the test in Altimo Holdings & Investments Ltd v Kyrgyz Mobil Tel [2011] UKPC 7—while also providing practitioners with useful clarity on the court’s handling of alleged breaches of the duty of full and frank disclosure in without notice applications. In this matter, the court held that the failure to draw its attention to a series of ‘ inherent problems with the case ’—stemming from the fact that many of the asserted claims were time-barred under the applicable law—led to a picture being presented to the master that was ‘ a world away ’ from the true...

Turbulence across equity and bond markets, stirred by Donald Trump’s tariff fight, has cast doubt on the long-run prospects for retirement plan funding levels. Channelling growth via fresh equity exposure on the investment side appears distinctly riskier than it did merely two months back, at least for schemes and employers alike at present. No fixed date exists for rolling out the government’s proposed investment reforms, and regulatory lawyers and pensions analysts are now wondering if ministers will postpone or pare them down in the coming months. “ The turbulence sparked by Trump’s changing tariffs is affecting equities and bonds alike — the twin pillars of pension scheme assets,” said Beth Rivera, chief executive of Best Financial Planners. “ Many schemes are seeing valuation lurches that may temporarily puff up surplus positions. Lacking stability, employers could tap surpluses that are not genuinely...

White v Alder [2025] EWCA Civ 392 (7 April 2025) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling is a definitive and unequivocal statement from the Court of Appeal clarifying the nature and legal consequences of boundary demarcation agreements. Delivering the principal judgment, Asplin LJ held that such an agreement operates with proprietary effect and, as a result, binds successors in title regardless of any knowledge they may or may not have. To most property practitioners, the outcome will seem unsurprising. It aligns with the familiar approach articulated by Megarry J in Neilson v Poole (1969) 20 P& CR 909 (not reported by Lexis Nexis®UK), the leading authority on boundary agreements since 1969. Even so, although Megarry J’s reasoning had been affirmed by the Court of Appeal on a number of occasions, in the absence of a clear, binding authority squarely...

The High Court handed down a 40-page judgment on 17 April 2025, stating that India had not relinquished its right to invoke sovereign immunity in answer to proceedings brought to enforce an arbitration award. Judge William Blair concluded that, by virtue only of its ratification of the New York Convention 1958 ( NYC), the Republic of India had not submitted to the court’s jurisdiction; put another way, India’s ratification of the NYC does not, in itself and in the absence of a valid arbitration agreement, constitute consent via a prior written agreement by the state to waive its immunity......