Legal News

Mergers The Commission approved: the takeover of joint control of Bridewell Group Holdings Limited by Oakley Sotogrande Luxco S.à r.l. and Eurazeo Global Investor SAS ( M.11928) following a phase I review—see further, Midday Express the takeover of sole control of Fujitsu General Limited by Paloma Rheem Holdings Co......

Ruling from a court in the Northern Mariana Islands US District Judge Frances M Tydingco- Gatewood removed John K Baldwin and his firm, Bridge Capital LLC, from the ongoing litigation. In her written judicial order, she explained that, under federal arbitration law, successful claimants may seek to confirm an award only against 'any other party to the arbitration' process. As the respondents were never participants in the arbitration proceedings, the court therefore cannot confirm the awards against them under the Federal Arbitration Act. The judge also expressly refused to determine whether Baldwin is the alter ego of the award debtors— Lao Holdings NV and Sanum Investments Ltd—companies he had established as part of the venture—stating that addressing that issue would be inappropriate in this kind of proceeding at this particular time......

IFo A reported it had run a survey of 2,000 adults aged over 55, discovering that 43% of participants said they had taken no advice or guidance whatsoever. The study was undertaken to mark a full decade since the government introduced pension freedoms in April 2015, changes that enabled people over 55 to reach their retirement pots and withdraw tax-free cash as permitted when eligible......

Subsidy control Government releases response and adjustments to the subsidy control regime after consultation, as the Department for Business and Trade ( DBT) published the government response to a consultation from November 2024 on proposals to refine the UK subsidy control regime......

The Lloyd's Market Association ( LMA), an industry body, warned that tariff-driven rises in the cost of fixing equipment and facilities may see the burden ultimately shifted to policyholders. The insurance sector is becoming ever more sensitive to trade volatility, particularly across personal-lines offerings such as motor vehicles, which rely on low-cost supplies of car parts to keep repair costs down today......

What were the key findings of the Corry review The review points to multiple weaknesses across the current regulatory set-up. It cites inefficiency, uncertainty, and a framework failing to secure good outcomes for the natural environment or to enable sustainable expansion. It portrays the regime as mired in dated, uneven and excessively intricate rules, many derived from the EU, which tend to be enforced in a highly risk-averse fashion. A central message is the importance of regulators having sufficient autonomy and judgement. They should be capable of aligning with government priorities whilst ensuring their decisions remain predictable and consistent. The review also notes that the sheer scale and intricacy of environmental rules, together with the volume of guidance, complicate day-to-day practice and hinder compliance. The regulatory architecture must safeguard and improve the environment without rendering new infrastructure prohibitively costly or unduly hard to...

What does the Market Standards trend report cover? Click here to access the complete report in Shorthand format. Lexis+® UK Corporate and Market Standards have undertaken research exploring patterns in equity capital markets activity on the London Stock Exchange in 2024. The report delivers detailed analysis of IPOs, introductions, transfers between markets and secondary offers completed on the Main Market and AIM in 2024, together with insight into what we might expect in 2025. Topics covered include: a five-year comparative view of Main Market and AIM transaction volumes, market capitalisation and gross proceeds industry sector analysis of IPOs and secondary offerings fundraising structures for IPOs and secondary offers details on the use of retail offer platforms, including the size of retail offers comparison of offer price discounts and the use of prospectuses in secondary offers an...

Statement follows. Competition and Consumer Protection Commission publishes record of enforcement activity for 2024 Five successful prosecutions, including Tesco and Homesavers Influencers among those served compliance notices for breaching consumer protection law 47 fines issued to traders in eight counties The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ( CCPC) has today released its annual Consumer Protection List ( CPL) 2024, setting out its consumer protection enforcement actions. Businesses featured span multiple sectors, including supermarket chains, department stores, pubs, bars and restaurants, and vehicle retail. For the first time, the list also records action taken against influencers who failed to disclose the commercial nature of their social media posts. In 2024, the following enforcement outcomes were finalised: Five traders were prosecuted in court, including Tesco and Homesavers 23 Compliance Notices were served on traders, three of these to...

Portland Stone Firms Ltd v Albert Goodman LLP [2025] EWHC 702 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision clarifies the court’s approach to disputed debts at both petition and injunction stages. It stresses substance over form and centres on whether there is an indisputable sum above the statutory threshold. Disputed facts do not, without more, require the petition’s dismissal; the court will interrogate the evidence in depth to see if the dispute is tenable. At the interlocutory injunction stage, identifying an undisputed liability—or one not realistically disputable on substantial grounds—is sufficient for the petition to proceed. Proof of cash flow solvency alone will not justify restraining the presentation or advertisement of the petition in such a scenario, even where the chances of convincing the court at the petition hearing that the company is insolvent are slim. The court need not pinpoint the exact amount due,...

In its press release, TPR urged trustees of smaller DC pension schemes with assets below £100m to assess if members’ interests are better served within larger schemes. Driving consolidation remains central to TPR’s three-year corporate plan, launched in May 2024. The regulator argues that smaller arrangements are more likely to exhibit weaker governance. “ All savers deserve to be in schemes with strong governance,” said Gaucho Rasmussen, TPR’s executive director of regulatory compliance. “ Where trustees cannot match the best in the market, on value or governance, they should consider whether moving to a better-value scheme is best for their savers.” Trustees were encouraged to prioritise value and governance when deciding......

Grove Construction ( London) Ltd v Bagshot Manor Ltd [2025] EWHC 591 ( TCC) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment confirms the established principle that only rights and benefits under a contract are capable of assignment, not burdens or obligations. The issue arose in a distinctive setting: the employer under a construction contract had become insolvent and assigned its interests in that contract to a third party. Seeking to recover retention monies due under the contract, the contractor then commenced an adjudication against the assignee. The court’s decision highlights the following point, which parties to construction contracts may wish to consider: adjudication and assignment: a party to a construction contract is unlikely to have the right to adjudicate against an assignee; a dispute with the assignee is not a dispute arising under the construction contract. This is because the...

Mergers The CMA has indicated it is reviewing the undertakings proposed by the parties, put forward instead of referring Safran S. A.’s anticipated purchase of part of Collins Aerospace’s actuation and flight control business (a unit of RTX Corporation) to a phase 2 investigation—see the case page... Note— For all live mergers before the CMA, see the UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker... Upcoming dates— For dates of upcoming UK competition developments, see the UK Competition calendar......

Nick Ephgrave Nick Ephgrave acknowledged it was no secret that the SFO has witnessed a slight drop-off in the number of companies approaching the specialist anti-corruption body with suspected fraud and bribery within their organisation. To address this, the SFO intends to invest further in covert intelligence-gathering so it can better understand what is happening in corporate settings and, in turn, either pursue targets or encourage them to come forward, he told Law360 and reporters from other news outlets. Ephgrave said he wants to be more in control of the referrals received by an agency that largely depends on businesses volunteering information, with the aim of invigorating and provoking self-reporting by companies. He added that he is really seeking to drive up the number of corporates the SFO deals with, whether through self-reporting supported by revised corporate guidance, via...

Online platforms will see age assurance be in focus in the EU Digital Services Act guidance A senior Commission official said today that the EU Digital Services Act guidance will put age assurance centre-stage for online platforms. Martin Harris Hess, head of the Commission’s protection of minors unit, told an event that a draft will be released for public consultation in the coming weeks and will lay out a broad set of recommendations for platforms. The breadth is warranted, he noted, because of the wide ‘variety and diversity of platforms’. He also explained that the current version, still subject to change, spans ‘over a dozen chapters’ and frames advice from the user’s point of view. It is expected to address areas including platform governance, account creation and set-up, content moderation, recommender systems, generative AI and age verification. For every chapter there will be...

Summary The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman dismissed a complaint alleging undue delay in making a transfer payment. It was deemed acceptable, and aligned with industry practice, to raise follow‑up questions only once the initial completed transfer paperwork had been received. The Scheme had, in all likelihood, sent its request to the correct email address. The transfer was concluded within the Scheme’s target service level of 15 working days, and that period was considered reasonable. This outcome also underscores the need for pension schemes to maintain accurate member contact details. What were the facts? Mr N was a member of the IBM Pension Plan (the Scheme). He requested a transfer of his Scheme benefits to a personal pension. After receiving the completed transfer forms, the Scheme emailed Mr N to the address......

On 6 March 2025, the European Banking Authority ( EBA) published a consultation paper setting out draft Regulatory Technical Standards ( RTS). These draft RTS were issued following the European Commission’s ( Commission) Call for Advice. They constitute a component of the European Union’s ( EU) Anti- Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism ( AML/ CTF) package, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 19 June 2024......

My five specific observations: Benefits of AI : the Guideline adopts a firm view that AI is a boon to arbitration ( Part I). That matters because conversations about AI are too often anxiety-driven and focus solely on downsides and negatives alike. The Guideline gets it right, quite unequivocally, in fact. By way of illustration, it states that AI can materially improve the arbitral workflow in both efficiency and quality. Both points hold. From our own data after creating a dispute resolution AI system at www.aavalynx.ai, we see efficiency uplifts of up to 70%, alongside better quality, as AI avoids overlooking key evidence and proactively flags any gaps in the record Risks of AI : Part I of the Guideline likewise addresses the hazards of deploying AI. Here, the vital question is: which risks are novel to, or notably magnified by, AI, and which long...

Original news Mr N ( CAS-45541- T0B3)—8 December 2024 / Mr N ( PO-28733)—14 November 2024 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman has upheld two complaints relating to the shortcomings of two related small self-administered schemes ( SSASs) in conducting proper due diligence before entering a high-risk property investment. The same professional trustee acted for both schemes and was positioned to stop the transaction. The investment was speculative and lacked diversification. No prudent trustee would have proceeded with such an investment. The Pensions Ombudsman concluded that the professional trustee should bear 80% of the loss, leaving the co-trustee and the complainant jointly responsible for the remaining 20%. This outcome serves as a reminder that a professional trustee can be held liable for flawed investment decisions even where the complainant is also a co-trustee... What were the facts? Mr N was a member of the Manvers Limited Executive Pension Scheme and the...

Summary The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has partly upheld a complaint concerning unreasonable delay in paying a transfer. The pension scheme’s administrator took more than a year to complete the transfer payment. It persisted in asking for information even after it had been supplied and was slow to respond to enquiries. Taken together, this amounted to maladministration, which caused the complainant significant distress and inconvenience. This decision is a reminder to pension schemes that transfer requests should be handled promptly and in a timely manner. What were the facts? Mr T was a member of the Sainsbury’s Pension Scheme (the Scheme). The Scheme was administered by Willis Towers Watson ( WTW). Mr T submitted a request to move his Scheme benefits to a personal......

On 2 April 2025, TPR announced in a press statement that, as it refines its framework, it will run targeted engagement with a selection of professional trustee firms over Summer 2025. It plans to extend this oversight to the wider population of professional trustee firms across the market by the close of 2025. TPR added it will trial 'proportionate and targeted' approaches to gathering data and intends to build a culture of 'regulatory dialogue'. Ultimately, TPR said it wants to secure better outcomes for savers. According to Nausicaa Delfas, TPR’s Chief Executive, the sector has experienced 'significant growth' in recent years, and now a majority of pension schemes appoint a professional or sole trustee. Delfas noted that 'between them, just 10 firms govern more than a trillion pounds of savers' retirement income'......