Court of Appeal overturns order permitting use of covert recordings to support claims in civil litigation before breach of confidence claim determined

15 January, 2020
A recent Court of Appeal decision illustrates the court’s approach to the protection of confidential information, emphasising that the question of a party’s entitlement to use material obtained in breach of confidence must be determined before that party can rely on the material in support of separate claims, not at the same time or afterwards: … Read more

Reference to CJEU as to whether EU-domiciled defendant has right to be sued in its state of domicile and to restrain non-EU proceedings by anti-suit injunction

06 January, 2020
The Court of Appeal has made a reference to the CJEU, asking for a preliminary ruling as to whether a defendant domiciled in an EU member state has the right, under the recast Brussels Regulation, to be sued in that state and to obtain an anti-suit injunction restraining proceedings in a non-EU jurisdiction. It further … Read more

Court of Appeal confirms jurisdiction to restrain foreign arbitration even where England is not the natural forum for the dispute

23 July, 2019
The Court of Appeal has partly upheld the injunction granted by the Commercial Court restraining the pursuit of arbitration proceedings seated in Lebanon: Sabbagh v Khoury and others [2019] EWCA Civ 1219. In doing so, it confirmed the power of English courts to restrain a foreign arbitration on grounds that the foreign arbitration is oppressive … Read more

High Court applies high threshold test to injunctions against public bodies

15 August, 2018
In a recent decision, the High Court rejected an application for an interim injunction restraining publication of a decision to impose sanctions on an accountancy firm. The court applied a high threshold test when considering the publication of the decision by a public body and concluded this case was not sufficiently “exceptional” to warrant an … Read more

Commercial Court clarifies scope of standard undertaking not to enforce worldwide freezing order abroad without court’s permission

03 May, 2018
The Commercial Court has recently considered the scope of the standard undertaking provided in connection with worldwide freezing orders, which requires the applicant to seek the court’s permission before seeking to enforce the order outside England and Wales, or seeking an order of a “similar nature”: Akcine Bendrove Bankas Snoras v Antonov [2018] EWHC 887 … Read more

Notable increase in interim privacy injunctions sought and obtained in the second half of 2017

29 March, 2018
In March 2018, the Ministry of Justice published quarterly provisional civil justice statistics for England and Wales. These statistics include interesting details regarding the increase in court applications for privacy injunctions in 2017. The guidance to the Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly bulletin published in December 2017 notes that the statistics provided in respect of privacy … Read more