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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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Protection from Unfair Trading Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( Commencement No 2) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/272, reg 2, most of DMCCA 2024, Pt 4, Ch 1 will take effect on 6 April 2025. The provisions not commencing concern consumers’ private law rights of redress ( DMCCA 2024, ss 232, 234 and 235). Chapter 1, ‘ Protection from Unfair Trading’, supersedes the Consumer Protection from Unfair Commercial Practices Regulations 2008 ( CPUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277, as outlined in DMCCA 2024, s 224. In contrast to much of the remainder of the Act, Pt 4, Ch 1 is not designed to be a wholesale reform of existing statutory protections; instead, it largely preserves the prior legal effect, with minor modifications (see Explanatory Note to DMCCA 2024, para 1330). Many updates are definitional refinements that recognise the case law developed since CPUTR 2008 came into...
David Walmsley, the director of supervision at TPR, stated in a speech to the Pensions Administration Standards Association conference that, although progress has been made, there is 'more to do', particularly for defined benefit schemes. The warning forms part of a regulatory push by TPR to ensure pension schemes hold consumer data in a format that can be easily plugged into new online pensions dashboards developed under government direction. The deadline for all schemes to connect to the back end of......
Trials are now being timetabled for 2028. The backlog in the magistrates' courts, the entry point for all criminal matters, topped 300,000 last year. Chronic underfunding throughout the justice system causes and deepens the delays. The upshot is the worst of outcomes: cases falling apart, defendants and complainants enduring years before a hearing, and miscarriages of justice. Paradoxically, these strains may prompt better judgement in certain enforcement actions. Even diligent organisations can suffer incidents. Pursuing a prosecution is often out of proportion where an organisation has taken all reasonable steps to protect safety, notwithstanding a merely technical infringement. Legal context When the Robens report on workplace health and safety was finalised in 1972, a clear consensus emerged: criminal proceedings are not suited to most offences under health and safety law, and ought to be kept for breaches that are flagrant, wilful or reckless. The Health and...
At a routine accountability hearing, Nikhil Rathi told the Treasury Committee that the financial watchdog must make judgements about the trade-off between growth and risk. He nevertheless informed parliamentarians that the FCA needs a consensus from government and Parliament. ' What matters for us is to secure as wide a consensus as possible, including in Parliament, on what the appropriate risk appetite is and how we strike those trade-offs, collectively,' Rathi said ultimately. He said that, working with government, the FCA could potentially revise rules on sanctions and anti-money laundering, along with other checks and safeguards on financial crime—which costs the sector billions of pounds a year. ' But, in doing so, we simply cannot guarantee that one or two money launderers will not get......
What are the practical implications of this case? Auditors, treated as company officers for IA 1986, ss 235–236, are plainly more likely to be compelled to supply records and documents, especially where their working papers satisfy ISA ( UK) 230 and the audit files are needed to assess potential liabilities of auditors/directors. The context of any IA 1986, ss 235–236 request will differ, and the statute does not, in any respect, confine the court’s discretion. The court will weigh the value to the office-holder of obtaining the material against the level of oppression upon the respondent. This indicates that the degree of oppression may shape the court’s view of how far the office-holder’s stated need is reasonable, per Cloverbay Ltd v BCCI SA [1991] Ch 90, as circumstances require, case-by-case, in practice......
Sovereign Network Homes—formerly Network Homes Ltd, and Network Build Ltd According to a High Court order dated 26 March 2025, Sovereign Network Homes—formerly Network Homes Ltd—and Network Build Ltd reached confidential settlement terms with a consortium of nine insurers. Network Homes, the owner of the building, and Network New Build, the arm that entered building contracts for the association, issued proceedings in 2023, asserting a right to indemnity for losses arising from defects at a Watford development. The claimants said WPHV Ltd, also known as Willmott Dixon Housing Ltd, acted as main contractor on the scheme and was responsible for defective, combustible insulation and cladding. The contractor entered administration in December 2020 and held professional indemnity insurance with Chubb European between 2019 and 2020. WPHV also had excess insurance cover with......
Domestic Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman ( Amendment) Bill 2023 On 5 February 2025, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman ( Amendment) Bill 2023 (the Bill) was reinstated on the Dáil Order Paper after the 33rd Dáil was dissolved. Its purpose is to give effect to the ruling in Zalewski v Adjudication Officer and others [2021] IESC 24, and to revise elements where the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman ( FSPO) might be regarded as administering justice. The Bill also proposes a limited suite of further amendments to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act 2017, including: clarifying the respective remits of the FSPO and the credit reviewer confirming the Ombudsman’s capacity to investigate firms that may no longer be regulated providing for the method of calculating expenses incurred by the Ombudsman in carrying out their functions ...
The Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility Set up in 2024 in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in west London, the Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility has enabled cover for high‑risk buildings with fire safety issues that might otherwise have gone uninsured, the Association of British Insurers ( ABI) reported on 20 March 2025... The ABI noted that the facility, introduced by Mc Gill and Partners Ltd on 1 April 2024, is designed to expand insurers’ capacity to insure these properties by letting them distribute and share the related risks... The Grenfell Tower blaze, a high‑rise block of flats, resulted in 72 fatalities... Steve Mc Gill, founder and chief executive of Mc Gill and Partners, said it is ‘incredibly rewarding’ to see advantages emerging for leaseholders who have struggled to obtain insurance because of fire risks. ‘ I’m immensely......
Standard Chartered has lost a bid to cut hundreds of millions of pounds out of a UK lawsuit by investors who claim they lost out due to the investment bank’s complicity in bribery and sanctions busting Hundreds of investment funds seek £1.5bn, saying they suffered losses after the bank minimised the extent of its role in sanctions breaches. In 2019, Standard Chartered paid US$1.1bn to US and UK regulators to settle claims it broke sanctions rules on Iran and elsewhere, which investors say underscores their action......
Gladwin v RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP and others [2024] EWHC 3054 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Although Mr Gladwin appeared as a litigant in person at the hearing in October 2024 (the Hearing), he had enjoyed legal representation until September 2024. Notwithstanding that support, he still failed to comply with the unless order. The court’s approach to relief from sanctions here provides practical guidance for practitioners confronted with meritless or vexatious applications by litigants in person. The judge did not hesitate to conclude that the relief Mr Gladwin sought was doomed. In addition, litigants in person do not obtain ‘special treatment’ when they have committed clear and egregious breaches of orders. Consequently, practitioners need not be reticent about advancing robust submissions against litigants in person where there has been serious non-compliance with procedural rules or unless orders. The...
See Q& A: Where a Will leaves the residuary estate to a minor, expressly stated to vest 'absolutely on attaining 18 years of age', and that minor dies before reaching that milestone, does the bequest ultimately lapse?......
The UPC Court of First Instance on 21 March 2025 dismissed Mul- T- Lock’s assertion that it lacked authority to assess alleged infringement of IMC Creations’ lock‑mechanism patent in the UK, Spain and Switzerland—jurisdictions outside the unitary patent regime. Mul‑ T‑ Lock’s objection—that the non‑ UPC status of the UK, Spain and Switzerland precluded such scrutiny—was therefore refused. Relying on the Court of Justice’s February 2025 decision in BSH Hausgeräte Gmb H v Electrolux AB, Case C‑339/22, the UPC Paris Local Division confirmed jurisdiction over IMC Creations’ actions against Mul‑ T‑ Lock France and Mul‑ T‑ Lock Switzerland, noting that, as with the court, one of the two defendants is established in France. The court reasoned that a patent proprietor must be able to bring all infringement claims arising across several Member States before a single forum, obtain...
Mergers The Commission authorised: Grohe Holding Gmb H and Versicherungskammer Bayern Versicherungsanstalt des öffentlichen Rechts to obtain joint control of Sense Guard Gmb H ( M.11897) following a phase I review—see further, Midday Express Govera Inversiones SL and Sonaca SA to take joint control of Aciturri Aeronautica SLU ( M.11898) after a phase I review—see further, Midday Express The Commission received notification of PAI Partners/ Motel One ( M.11933) (simplified merger procedure) NOTE— For all ongoing merger investigations before the Commission, see further, EU mergers—ongoing cases tracker State aid The General Court convened a hearing in Joined Cases T- 639/14 REVN II DEI v Commission, T- 352/15 RENV DEI v Commission and T- 740/17 DEI v Commission, an application to annul the...
Press release dated 21 March 2025 In its 21 March 2025 press release, Hymans Robertson confirmed that last year’s total was the second largest on record, exceeded only by the £49.1bn of transactions completed in 2023. At the same time, signalling that the market has shifted to better serve smaller pension schemes aiming to buy-out, the volume of deals increased from 226 in 2023 to 299 across the year. James Mullins, partner and risk transfer specialist at Hymans Robertson, described the near-300 tally as an important milestone for the buy-in market......
Latest SIs laid for sifting On 24 March 2025, the following SI was submitted for sifting: Energy ( Euratom Decisions and Miscellaneous Provisions) ( Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2025 The complete list of proposed negative procedure SIs under REUL( RR) A 2023 is available here. Sifting process for proposed negative procedure SIs introduced under REUL( RR) A 2023 REUL( RR) A 2023 sets out a suite of delegated powers enabling the government and the devolved administrations to bring forward SIs to amend assimilated law. The principal legislative powers are contained in REUL( RR) A 2023, ss 11–16. The key procedural requirements, including parliamentary scrutiny arrangements for these instruments, are provided in REUL( RR) A 2023, s 20 and Schedules 4–5......
In October 2020, the claimant played the defendant’s Wild Hatter, a two-part game combining a fruit machine with a wheel of fortune. After triggering and completing the jackpot spin, her on-screen display announced a win of the ‘ Monster Jackpot’, shown as £1,097,132.71. The case in Durber centred on the mismatch between what appeared on her screen and the operator’s server logs, resulting in a drastic downgrade in the payout from a purported Monster Jackpot exceeding £1m to a far smaller Daily Jackpot of £20,265.14. The claimant pursued the shortfall between that figure and the Monster Jackpot. The defendant maintained that a random number generator had in fact awarded only the Daily Jackpot, and that a fault affected the game’s animations, erroneously presenting an incorrect outcome. It relied on its terms and conditions and pointed to prior rulings in Parker- Grennan v Camelot UK...
Digital Markets The CMA revised its provisional timelines for the strategic market status ( SMS) probes it is currently undertaking, pursuant to Part I of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2023, concerning Google’s general search and search advertising services, as well as the mobile ecosystem services also supplied by both Apple and Google......
The duty of the expert witness The litigation process is usually regulated by strict procedural rules in each jurisdiction, which often outline an expert’s role and obligations. In England, for example, experts are addressed in the Civil Procedure Rules, Part 35 ( CPR 35). These provisions set out, among other things, how experts are appointed, the expert’s duty, and the required structure and substance of an expert report. CPR 35 further requires the expert to include in his or her report a statement confirming independence. It makes clear that an expert’s role is to assist the court on matters within their expertise, and that this paramount duty takes precedence over any duty owed to the instructor or the party funding the engagement. By contrast, in arbitration there is generally no specific regulatory framework for experts within most institutional procedure rules. The rulebooks of the...
Our thanks go to the following contributors for offering their insights on this significant topic. Jesse Sherrett, Partner, Sterlington, New York Luis Perez, Chair, Latin America and the Caribbean Practice, Akerman, Miami Jonathan Morton, Counsel, Haynes & Boone, London Andreas Dracoulis, Partner, Haynes & Boone, London Jonathan Waisnor, Partner, Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP, New York Peter Rosher, Partner and Global Chair, International Arbitration, Reed Smith, Paris Jovana Crncevic, Special Counsel, Withers, New York Alex Haden, Senior Associate, Withers, New York Wade Corriell, Partner, King & Spalding, Singapore and Houston Mealey’s: What do you believe will be the major challenges for arbitration in 2025? Sherett: Across the West, 2024 proved difficult for sitting governments. In the US, the UK, France and Germany, opposition parties either returned to office with emphatic wins or left ruling parties...
What are the implications of this development? At this stage, there are no immediate practical effects, but the proposals set out in the consultation flag the rule amendments that are expected to follow later this year. Should these suggestions be taken forward, they are not anticipated to alter prevailing practice to any great extent, although practitioners might: be asked more frequently to provide a draft case management order notice a shift in how an employment tribunal approaches a failure to lodge a reply to an employer’s contract claim What is the background? The TPC has previously consulted on re-making the rules and introducing a limited number of further urgent rule changes. The consultation response was issued on 22 November 2024 and the updated rules, the ET Rules 2024, SI 2024/1155, took effect on 6 January 2025. In its earlier consultation the TPC outlined its planned future...
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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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