Legal News

An open letter dated 10 June 2024 cautioned politicians of all parties that 14 million savers are set to reach retirement without adequate funds for a reasonable pension income overall. As the nation prepares to vote in the general election on 4 July 2024, Labour is projected to secure a parliamentary majority for the first time in 19 years. The letter was endorsed by 11 organisations, among them the think tank Demos, insurer Phoenix Group, and the Investing and Saving Alliance, a trade association by nature as such......

Rushed pre-election manoeuvring in the closing days of the parliamentary term produced significant legislative casualties. Once a UK general election for 4 July was declared, Parliament entered a two-day ‘wash up’ to either push through draft measures or abandon them before prorogation on 24 May (with dissolution following on 30 May). Tenant organisations will be disheartened that certain bills, notably the Renters ( Reform) Bill, fell; yet the much-trailed Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill squeaked onto the statute book as the final Act of the session. The new law seeks to strengthen rights and protections for long-leasehold homeowners in England and Wales, covering rights to manage, collective enfranchisement, lease extensions, and the oversight of freehold estate management. The drive towards leasehold reform is now underway, but owing to hurried cross-party deal-making to secure passage, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is defined as much by...

Just Group reported that a poll of more than 1,000 adults found nearly three in ten employees had taken money out from their pensions between turning 55 and ceasing full‑time employment altogether. Of those who tapped their pension savings ahead of leaving full‑time job roles, almost half did so without seeking any advice or guidance, the research findings indicate. Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, described the findings as particularly worrying. ' It is troubling that a sizeable share of retirees are accessing their pension before exiting full‑time work without the support of financial advice or guidance,' Lowe said. He added that retirees have been contending with a difficult economic backdrop overall......

Market studies ORR publishes final report of its market study on railway station catering market; decides not to refer the market to the CMA The Office for Rail and Road ( ORR) has issued the final report from its market study into the provision of railway station catering in Great Britain. Railway station catering means the supply of food and beverages to customers, mostly passengers, by retailers trading at stations. It is a material market for passengers, retail catering firms and station facility owners. The ORR began the market investigation in June 2023......

Glenea Contracts Ltd v Friel [2024] EWHC 1243 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? The High Court’s ruling underscores that where staff misuse a trusted role to extract additional sums from their employer, they may, on the facts, be treated as fiduciaries and as trustees, materially strengthening the employer’s ability to claw back losses. Prior authority has underlined that, in contrast to company directors, employees—even at a senior level—are not, without more, fiduciaries of their employer. However, the Court found that the defendant, an employee vested with substantial trust and confidence in relation to control of the company’s bank account and wider finances, did in these circumstances owe fiduciary duties concerning the bank account specifically and the employer’s financial affairs more generally. Moreover, because he appropriated employer funds under his control for personal use, thereby breaching those fiduciary...

In recent months, solicitors have been guiding business clients on evaluating the risks posed by their artificial intelligence ( AI) systems and on taking immediate steps to establish internal governance frameworks, so that organisations keep pace with compliance under the far-reaching new law, approved by the Council of the EU in May 2024 and phased in across the next 36 months. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP partner Joel Harrison, co-chair of the firm's privacy, cybersecurity and data innovation practice group, told Law360 that numerous companies are working out internally where responsibility for AI governance should sit within current corporate arrangements, a task complicated by lingering ambiguities in the statute. He said many organisations are wrestling with the placement of AI governance and how the new AI rules intersect with their data privacy and security practices, as they determine how these...

Moody’s Ratings stated that the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority ( EIOPA) has set out proposals intended to secure fair value, bringing tougher controls over life insurance product design and charges, supported by benchmarking carried out at the product level. According to Moody’s, the EU’s Retail Investment Strategy aims to reinforce investor protection, boost market transparency and make sure investment products provide fair value for consumers. Yet the rating agency warned that tighter regulatory scrutiny could dampen life insurers’ earnings and compress overall profitability, as companies juggle compliance demands with sustaining competitive returns for policyholders......

Mergers The Commission cleared the deal for Uni Credit S.p. A. to obtain sole control of Alpha Bank Romania S. A...

Background ITLOS is the tribunal set up to settle disputes and issue opinions regarding the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 ( UNCLOS), and serves as the forum for interpreting and applying UNCLOS in practice. In December 2022, the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law ( COSIS) asked ITLOS for an advisory opinion on states’ duties under UNCLOS concerning existing or foreseeable damage to the marine environment caused by climate change. COSIS consists of a small group of island nations from the Caribbean and Pacific, each especially exposed to the effects of climate change. The Opinion The Opinion, endorsed unanimously by all ITLOS judges, sets out clear findings and guidance on how far states are obliged to: prevent, diminish and manage marine pollution in relation to harmful effects that arise, or are likely to arise, from...

The IFS, in a report released on 7 June 2024, said the incoming pensions minister will need to take a series of weighty decisions on pensions policy after the forthcoming general election, covering matters such as the state pension age and whether British workers are putting aside enough for later life. Heidi Karjalainen, a senior research economist at the IFS and one of the report’s authors, said the minister will have ‘a substantial in-tray’ once the vote is over. Many of these issues arise because, in today’s pension landscape, individuals shoulder considerable risk and responsibility, Karjalainen noted. While that brings people greater flexibility, she cautioned that individual misfortune or poor choices — or, for some, simply failing to choose at all — can lead to serious negative outcomes, in a way that was far less common in the past......

Wade and another v Singh and others [2024] EWHC 1203 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? There are two principal lessons for practitioners. First, treated as a preliminary question, was whether the liquidators could rely on determinations made in earlier misfeasance proceedings. Those proceedings targeted the insolvent company’s directors, not the daughter-in-law claiming to hold the whole beneficial interest in the property. As a general rule, a judgment obtained by A against B is not evidence against C, yet counsel could identify no authority on the scenario where A secures a judgment against B and then seeks to deploy the findings from that decision against B in a later claim brought by A against B and C. The judge ultimately considered it unnecessary to resolve the issue, though the point will almost certainly surface again. The second area of note...

Spectrum Community Healthcare CIC v HMRC [2024] UKUT 162 ( TCC) The taxpayer, Spectrum, was contracted to provide a joined-up primary healthcare offering in prisons, mirroring the level of care available from the NHS in the wider community. Delivery took place under agreements with NHS England ( NHSE). The key question was whether Spectrum supplied one exempt healthcare service, or instead made distinct supplies: exempt medical care and taxable prescription medicines and contraceptives. The FTT determined there was a single exempt supply of primary healthcare, or health and social care. Spectrum appealed to the UT on four grounds. Its first ground concerned the sequence in which the FTT addressed the issues. The tribunal examined the single versus multiple supply point first, then moved to the exemption question. This ground, closely connected to the second, was treated relatively briefly. The UT held it was...

Clifford v IBM United Kingdom Ltd [2024] EAT 90 What are the practical implications of this case? Settlement agreements are the staple of employment practitioners, so it is crucial to be clear about which claims they can legitimately waive. Considerable doubt has persisted over whether prospective claims—those not yet arisen and unknown to the parties at signing—can, with careful wording, be effectively released within a settlement. In Bathgate, the Court of Session determined that such future claims could indeed be compromised, provided the categories of claim were clearly specified in the agreement. Nonetheless, uncertainty remained as to whether: the EAT in England and Wales would align with the Court of Session’s approach a difference should be drawn between a ‘clean break’ end of employment (as in Bathgate) and situations where employment continues In this decision, Williams J unequivocally endorses and applies Bathgate. She...

Sharp Corp Ltd v Viterra BV (previously known as Glencore Agriculture BV) [2024] UKSC 14 What are the practical implications of this case? The Judgment offers clear confirmation of key principles underlying AA 1996, s 69. Delivering the leading Judgment, Lord Hamblen emphasises the restricted nature of any right of appeal under the Act, together with the strong policy justifications for that restriction. The court’s conclusions also reflect the overarching tenet in AA 1996, s 1(c) that judicial involvement in arbitration should be confined to circumstances where it is truly required. Practitioners are likely to appreciate the Supreme Court’s additional guidance on the Gafta Default Clause, whose construction has long divided the arbitration community. In Bunge v Nidera BV [2015] UKSC 43, the Supreme Court stated that the compensatory aim of the law of damages is normally realised by contrasting the contract price with the price that...

Alongside the full articles featured in the Financial Services news feed on 11 June 2024, subscribers might wish to note the following further developments for reference: ECB: Current challenges in supervision – new challenges for researchers WFE: Demystifying tokenisation: dispelling myths, explaining the muted traction......

Antitrust Judgment dismisses appeal against General Court’s judgment awarding DT €1.8m for Commission’s refusal to pay default interest on annulled abuse of dominance The Court of Justice has delivered its ruling in Case C‑221/22 P, Commission v Deutsche Telekom, concerning an appeal brought against the General Court’s judgment in Case T‑610/19. In that earlier judgment, the General Court partly upheld an action seeking compensation from the Commission for the overpayment of a fine linked to the Slovak Telekom (and Deutsche Telekom) — broadband in Slovakia matter ( COMP/39.523). The proceedings centred on the extent of the Commission’s liability following the adjustment of the penalty imposed... By way of context, in 2014 the Commission announced fines amounting to €38.8m against Slovak Telekom and its parent, Deutsche Telekom ( DT), for abuse of a dominant position on the Slovak market for broadband...

The High Court rejected an application by Asante Berko, who was an executive director in Goldman's natural-resources group, to avoid standing trial in the US. He is accused of corrupting officials over plans for a power station in the West African nation. Judge Charles Bourne concluded the purported offences were closely connected to alleged damage to Goldman Sachs, a US-based financial institution, and to more widespread detriment to the American financial system—even if the bulk of the impact would have been felt in Ghana and some in the United Kingdom. Some harm from the alleged wrongdoing would have taken place in the United States, Judge Bourne noted in his written judgment......

D’ Angelin v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 462 ( TC) The taxpayer was UK-resident but not domiciled and used the remittance basis. In 2016 he brought £1.5m of overseas income to the UK and placed it into a UK company where he was the sole shareholder and director. That company operated providing advice to international clients and family-owned holdings. He claimed business investment relief under section 809VA of the Income Tax Act 2007 ( ITA 2007) in relation to the investment, with the result that the £1.5m was treated as not remitted to the UK (and therefore not taxable). During 2017/18 he used the company credit card for private spending, from an i Tunes subscription through to the personal use of a jet, and those outgoings were posted to his director’s loan account. The balance on that account peaked at about £71,000. At all times he held...

The EU legacy and Brexit autonomy For decades, the UK operated within the EU’s rigorous and comprehensive food safety framework. Following Brexit, however, the country secured the freedom to design its own food safety rules, particularly around innovation and emerging technologies. Stepping away from the EU’s regulatory machinery has created space for faster, more agile progress. Challenges in the route to market Despite swift advances in science and food development, routes to market have been slowed by regulation. Industry has viewed these procedures as complex, lengthy, and obstructive to innovation, with companies often calling approval pathways opaque, resource-intensive, and hard to navigate. With its renewed independence, the UK plans to quicken growth at pace, from cultivated meat through to insect protein. As part of the government’s Vision for Engineering Biology, last year brought the Genetic Technology Act, intended to stimulate scientific innovation via a...

Standish v Standish [2024] EWCA Civ 567, [2024] All ER ( D) 104 ( May) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling clarifies two key dimensions of how the sharing principle is applied, a central touchstone since the House of Lords’ authorities in White v White [2000] 2 FLR 981 and Miller v Miller; Mc Farlane v Mc Farlane [2006] UKHL 24, [2006] 1 FLR 1186. In essence, the sharing principle provides that wealth built up during the marriage through the parties’ joint endeavour—whatever their respective roles—should be divided on an equal basis... Conversely, non-matrimonial property (including pre-marital assets and inheritances) falls outside the sharing exercise, though it remains available to satisfy needs where necessary. The courts have also recognised that fairness may, in some cases, warrant bringing some or all of that non-matrimonial property within the sharing principle (often referred to as...