<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

The 2024 edition of our award winning Dispute Resolution Yearbook provides an overview of the disputes market in general, insights into our practice, and an opportunity to learn more about our team.

Introduction 

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for claims to be brought in the English Courts on behalf of large groups of claimants seeking redress for environmental damage suffered in overseas jurisdictions. Although the English Courts have been reluctant to prevent such claims from proceeding on the basis of early procedural objections from defendants, their size and complexity have presented significant case management challenges (an issue we have previously addressed in this article).

This article was first published in the Oct-Dec 2023 edition of Corporate Disputes Magazine

Major fashion brands are increasingly making efforts to capitalise on growing ESG consciousness by consumers. At the same time however, brands are also aware of activity by regulators and campaigners that seeks to hold businesses accountable for "greenwashing" and human rights risks present in their value chain.

The Government announced on Monday that it will introduce new measures to address Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation ("SLAPPs") through amendments to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. The new measures will only address SLAPPs relating to economic crime and corruption, and it is unclear whether the Government intends to address SLAPPs in other fields in the future, or whether it sees this as the endpoint.

Travers Smith Senior Consultant, Simon Witney, has contributed to a report by the World Economic Forum – read the full White Paper 'Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point'.

Businesses with overseas operations, and firms that provide social audit support services to those businesses, need to be cognisant of attempts by claimant law firms to extend the existing boundaries of tort law and bring novel and ambitious value chain liability claims against them. Several claimant law firms (and litigation funders) have explicitly pivoted towards bringing these claims in the ESG space.

ClientEarth v Shell plc

Value chains are under the spotlight with the increase in so-called value chain liability claims in the UK: businesses operating in high-risk sectors need to carefully take stock of their potential exposure to this type of litigation risk. The retail sector (most notably larger retailers and supermarkets) needs to pay particular attention to these developments, given the size of their value chains and public profiles (and therefore the breadth of their potential legal and reputational exposure).  

The principal aim behind many climate change claims may not be to "win" but to draw attention to activities that cause and contribute to climate change, litigation being just one tool in an activist's toolbox. 

UK financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), issued a "Dear CEO" letter to asset managers last month, setting out its Asset Management Supervision Strategy.

Entering the policy debate behind other antitrust regulators, the CMA has signalled that it will give firms more latitude to pursue green collaborations – but the devil will be in detail.

Last week the Government announced that it will be introducing legislation that enables judges to use procedural shortcuts to dismiss so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (or "SLAPPs") at an early stage. This follows a campaign by UK newspapers to prevent wealthy individuals from issuing SLAPPs with the intention of preventing legitimate public interest journalism.

We reported last summer on the Government's 2021 consultation about the design and implementation of the Building Safety Levy (the "Levy"). It is intended to contribute to the costs of anticipated building safety expenditure to ensure that neither the taxpayer nor tenants have to pay for the remediation of safety defects in the existing high-rise housing stock. Since that consultation, the scope of the Levy has expanded to apply to all new residential developments that require building control approval (with a few exceptions). The Building Safety Act 2022 has also been enacted, section 58 of which gives the Secretary of State broad powers to raise a Levy on any in-scope building.

Claimants are finding novel ways to advance collective proceedings, including the increasingly popular collective proceedings regime in the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT").  While this regime was introduced to facilitate competition law claims, claimant law firms are finding creative ways to use it for matters that do not appear, at first blush, to be "competition" related matters at all. 

Surging commodity prices are creating headaches in the tech and automotive sectors, with the cost of key materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel (key components in electric car batteries) rising following supply chain disruptions associated with Covid and the war in Ukraine. 

In this video series, our cross-disciplinary team of market-leading experts unpack some of the key ESG issues that corporates and counsel alike will need to be aware of when developing their own sustainability strategies. 

On 8 July 2022, the Court of Appeal handed down its long-awaited judgment in the Municipio De Mariana group litigation claim, granting permission for some 200,000 Brazilian claimants to pursue in the UK their group action for damages caused by the collapse of the Fundão Dam in Brazil in 2015.