Insights

London – October 4, 2023: Crowell & Moring U.K. LLP has been recommended in four practice areas in the Legal 500 United Kingdom 2024. In addition, partner Andrew Knight has been named as a leading individual for asset based lending. The firm’s full rankings can be viewed here.

London – June 30, 2021: Crowell & Moring secured a win on behalf of Dana UK Axle in a High Court judgment that culminates more than three years of intense litigation and seven years of engagement between Dana UK Axle and Freudenberg Sealing Technologies.  On June 28, London’s Technology and Construction Court issued its judgment finding fully in Dana’s favor and awarding all of the £11,243,026 claimed and an indemnity for future losses.  The court will award the client interest on this judgment as well, which will be a substantial additional sum.  Freudenberg will be ordered to pay Dana’s legal fees and expenses, the majority of which will be on an “indemnity” basis, and a £75,000 penalty for failing to accept an earlier Part 36 offer, which operates much like an offer of judgment in the U.S.

Businesses affected by the Strait of Hormuz crisis are likely to be navigating both sides of the contractual liability equation: seeking to enforce protections while simultaneously trying to limit their own exposure. This balancing act will feel familiar to those who managed supply chain disruptions during the Covid pandemic or in response to Russian sanctions. But the scale of uncertainty and the severity of the current situation make it particularly challenging to chart a clear path forward. This note provides an overview of the English-law issues that have arisen in this current crisis and is relevant for companies and legal counsel seeking to understand and mitigate contractual risk in their supply chains, including for shipping, energy, commodities, and construction.

The president of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has signalled a more rigorous approach to scrutinising opt-out collective actions at the certification stage, with particular attention to whether the financial benefits of such claims flow to the claimant class or primarily to their lawyers and funders. Coming at a time when the UK Law Commission is consulting on expanding the scope of the opt-out regime, this development warrants careful consideration by all those with interests in the UK litigation funding market.

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has published details of a £390,000 penalty it imposed on ADI, an Irish subsidiary of Apple Inc., on 19 March 2026. The penalty relates to two payments totalling approximately £635,000 made in 2022 to Okko LLC, a sanctioned Russian app developer, for App Store revenue. Although the underlying facts are relatively simple, there are several interesting takeaways from OFSI’s penalty notice.

Hacking and malware attacks are now critical business risks for any organisation and their threat level and sophistication are ever increasing. As we begin 2022, securing data and networks, managing threats to infrastructure and having a comprehensive critical response plan in place are key.