Legal News

The FCA announced on 5 March 2024 that it has secured an agreement with the last outstanding providers of this cover to halt sales while issues with the product’s core design are addressed. Guaranteed asset protection ( GAP) insurance supplies an extra payment to motorists who are financing new cars that are written off after a crash or taken by thieves. However, the watchdog considers the policy, typically sold by car dealers as an add-on to compulsory motor insurance, to deliver poor value for consumers In February 2024, the FCA confirmed it had reached deals with 80% of GAP insurers to suspend sales until the product is reworked, and on 5 March 2024 it said the pause would soon extend to the remaining providers. Michael Sicsic, a former head of insurance supervision at the FCA and now managing partner at regulatory...

AIB Group Plc AIB Group Plc unveiled €1.7bn worth of shareholder rewards, including a proposed €700m cash dividend, following a 170% jump in profits for 2023. The lender also plans to repurchase €1bn worth of shares from shareholders. It said it is in talks with the Irish government to buy back the shares from the minister for finance, a step that will require approval from AIB's shareholders at its annual general meeting on 2 May 2024. Counsel details for the shareholder returns were not immediately available......

Spring Budget 2024— Key tax announcements. Follow the link to watch the video...

Peter Carter KC of Doughty Street Chambers, who headed the FCA prosecution, obtained the guilty verdict against Mohammed Zina, sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment in February. The matter carried notable intricacies, particularly because Goldman Sachs’ server sat in the US, which influenced the timing of transactions. From April 2019, Carter devoted over 800 hours to preparation and spent ten weeks before the court, supported by his junior counsel, Rachel Barnes KC of Three Raymond Buildings. Carter has tried other prominent insider‑dealing prosecutions for the FCA and its precursor. He has handled similar high‑profile insider‑dealing matters for the FCA and its predecessor body before, and knows their challenges. He understands how hard it is to secure a conviction, and tells Law360 how, for all the government’s lip service, it gives inadequate backing to the FCA’s related enforcement work. As every major bank, insurer, wealth...

Mergers The Commission approved: the formation of a joint venture by Worldline and Crédit Agricole ( M.11120) following a phase I review—see also Midday Express the purchase of shared control of Packeta sro by CVC Capital Partners SICAV- FIS SA and EMMA Alpha Holding Ltd.......

According to a defence lodged in the High Court on 22 February 2024, which has recently been made public, the insurer contended that the claimants’ bid for indemnity cannot succeed, as none of the matters meets the policy conditions agreed between the parties. Liberty Mutual maintained that cover would only arise if the businesses demonstrated the ‘discovery’ of an illness like coronavirus on the premises, and that such discovery led to closure pursuant to official rules, among other specified conditions and prerequisites. However, the insurer said that ‘none of the claimants has alleged or identified any case of coronavirus at the premises’ sufficient to trigger cover under the policy wording and terms. ‘ The claimants’ claims are bound to fail,’ the defence concluded accordingly therein......

Clipperton and another v HMRC [2024] EWCA Civ 180 Under an arrangement dubbed ‘ Aikido’, the taxpayers’ company, WY, formed a subsidiary ( WS) that created A shares and a single B share. WY transferred the B share into a trust, under which WY retained an ongoing interest, with a sum to be paid to charity, though the principal beneficiaries were the two shareholders. WY then subscribed for another WS A share at a hefty premium, and WS thereafter implemented a reduction of capital, generating distributable reserves. The result was that, when WS declared a substantial dividend on the B share, the shareholders then became entitled to virtually all of the proceeds. HMRC contended that, notwithstanding the elaborate steps through which WY’s profits moved, the funds amounted to a distribution by WY once they reached the shareholders. The taxpayers maintained that there was a...

A judge at Southwark Crown Court has allowed the FCA to pause its civil action against Wealth Tek LLP for a year, concluding that a delay would not expose wealth manager’s principal, John Dance, to a real risk of prejudice that might result in injustice. Sitting as a High Court judge, Judge Toni Baumgartner found the regulator’s application was brought on substantial grounds. She observed the FCA considers the conduct it says it has uncovered to rank among the most significant frauds ever committed by an approved person at an FCA authorised firm. Dance is the principal partner of the Tyneside-based firm. He was arrested by the FCA in April 2023 on suspicion of fraud and money laundering following serious regulatory and operational issues at the now-closed company. He has not been charged. Judge Baumgartner accepted City watchdog’s position that the criminal...

Although Stability AI Ltd. accepts that ‘at least some’ images from the stock photography giant’s site were used to ‘train’ its generative art system, the company — in a defence newly made public at the High Court on Wednesday — again asserted that no training occurred within the UK. ‘ Stable Diffusion was not trained in the UK and we expect to be fully vindicated at trial’, a Stability AI spokesperson told Law360 on 1 March 2024. Getty brought proceedings against Stability AI in the High Court in May 2023, alleging copyright infringement for training Stable Diffusion on millions of its works via an online data set compiled by ‘scraping’ links to photographs and videos, together with their captions, from across the web, including websites such as Getty Images, Flickr and Tumblr. In certain instances, outputs from Stable Diffusion allegedly contained a...

Zubaydah v Foreign and Commonwealth Office and others [2023] UKSC 50 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision is a rarity in two respects. First, it offers one of the few instances in which the general rule in PIL( MP) A 1995, s 11 was set aside by PIL( MP) A 1995, s 12 due to the significance of factors linking the torts to a different forum—here, England. The central message is that, when relying on PIL( MP) A 1995, s 12 to displace PIL( MP) A 1995, s 11, the court scrutinises how the key elements of the torts connect with each of the competing countries whose laws are said to govern. That assessment calls for a careful examination of the pleadings, a step taken only by Lord Sales in his dissenting judgment. Secondly, the case is unusual because, rather than...

The Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility will increase underwriting capacity in the market He said the initiative would bolster underwriting capacity across the market. Sheldon Mills, the FCA’s executive director for consumers and competition, set out the position in a letter to the government’s housing secretary dated 29 February 2024. He noted that the programme, currently being developed by the Association of British Insurers ( ABI), was due to launch by summer 2023, but has encountered delays. According to Mills, progress has taken longer than expected given the challenge of securing sufficient reinsurance capacity for the risks at stake and of shaping a scheme that properly meets insurers’ needs and, by extension, those of customers and leaseholders......

New Practice Note— The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023—what Banking & Finance lawyers need to know Consult Practice Note: The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023—what Banking & Finance lawyers need to know......

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Subsidy control The Subsidy Advice Unit released its final report, setting out advice to the Welsh Government on its proposed Development Bank of Wales Rescue and Restructuring scheme—see further, report. The Subsidy Advice Unit also accepted a request from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for a report on its proposed English Investment Zones scheme—see further, case page. NOTE— For all referrals considered by the Subsidy Advice Unit under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, see further, UK subsidy control—cases tracker. Private actions The CAT published the application in Asda Stores Limited and Others v Bremnes Seashores AS and Others, a damages claim under section 47A of the Competition Act 1998 brought by Asda Stores, Iceland Foods, Marks and Spencer, Ocado Retail, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, International Seafoods, Aldi Stores, and Co-operative Group against thirteen farmed Atlantic salmon suppliers, alleging...

Accattatis v Fortuna Group ( London) Ltd [2024] EAT 25 On 29 February 2024, the EAT held that the earlier tribunal must revisit Francesco Accattatis’ claims that his dismissal from Fortuna Group ( London) Ltd was unfair on health and safety grounds, following repeated requests to work remotely and to be placed on furlough during the pandemic. Judge Simon Auerbach noted that, although the tribunal possessed the material needed to assess the significance of the claimant’s knowledge that some colleagues had been allowed to work from home, and of the guidance he said he received from the HMRC helpline about furlough, he could not infer that those points were specifically addressed by the tribunal. The judgment records that Accattatis joined Fortuna Group in May 2018 as a sales and project marketing coordinator. In March 2020, as the pandemic emerged, he asked to work from home......

The correspondence is enclosed. This piece was originally published...

Main features The Digitalisation Regulation creates a single legal framework for deploying electronic communications and digital tools in cross-border legal proceedings, and in particular sets out rules on the following: communications among competent authorities, and between natural or legal persons and competent authorities use of videoconferencing or alternative remote communication technology deployment of electronic signatures and electronic seals legal consequences of electronic documents payment of fees by electronic means It requires that, wherever possible, exchanges between competent authorities across different EU Member States, and between a national competent authority and an EU body or agency, take place via a decentralised IT system. By contrast, for civil and commercial matters involving communications between natural or legal persons and competent authorities, a European electronic access point will be established on the European e- Justice Portal. The Regulation also permits...

Hill's new colleagues in the US Hill joins peers in the US who already recognise the tightening of corporate criminal liability, with parts of the regime due to take effect this year under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. Though he won’t be bringing prosecutions—as he did over thirty years at Red Lion Chambers and later as one of the nation’s most senior law officers—he will lean on the very same expertise in his fresh post, advising businesses and individuals on internal investigations. His view is that intimate knowledge of how inquiries unfold and how cases are assembled is a core asset he now applies in private practice. Understanding prosecutorial case-building, he argues, is vital, which is why he believes former prosecutors have a clear role within the private legal marketplace. A barrister who led Red Lion Chambers for several years before being...

Leonard and others v Leonard (by her litigation friend Sharon Thompsett) and others [2024] EWHC 321 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Banks v Goodfellow The common law test for testamentary capacity is well recognised by litigators practising in this area. Under Banks v Goodfellow (1869-70) LR 5 QB 549, a testator has capacity only if they can satisfy the following: be capable of understanding the nature and effect of making a Will be able to understand the extent and value of the property or estate they are disposing of be able to comprehend and properly weigh the claims to which they ought to give effect have no disorder of the mind that distorts their sense of right or prevents the natural exercise of their faculties when disposing of property by Will The judge held that the first limb...

P. R. I. M. E. Finance releases 2023 Annual Report— LNB News 14/02/2024 18 P. R. I. M. E. Finance has released its 2023 Annual Report. The publication sets out a broad sweep of the organisation’s projects and activity, including: hosting its tenth annual gathering in The Hague in June 2023; initiating a review of the P. R. I. M. E. Finance Mediation rules; and deploying more of its experts to support complex financial disputes in domestic courts. What is the focus of this year’s annual report? Last year’s edition offered a chance to reflect on P. R. I. M. E. Finance’s history. This year, we highlight the ground we have covered towards fulfilling our mission, as well as our trajectory for the years ahead. We also spotlight the work of our four forums—groups of P. R. I. M. E. Finance Experts who meet...