Insights

On 2 June 2025 the Civil Justice Council (a UK public body that advises on civil justice and civil procedure) (“CJC”) issued its Review of Litigation Funding Final Report (the “Report”). The CJC has provided comprehensive recommendations on the regulation and reform of litigation funding in England and Wales. The highlight recommendation of the Report is for the UK Government to remove third party litigation funding from the regulations and requirements of the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013 (“DBA Regulations”), reversing the judgment of the Supreme Court in PACCAR.[1] Meanwhile, the UK Court of Appeal has recently endorsed a position that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) may order that third party funders of collective proceedings be paid first from litigation proceeds before claimants according to waterfall provisions in their funding agreements.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, Crowell & Moring (Crowell) and King's College London co-hosted their 6thannual Competition Law Conference at TheMerode in Brussels. The event featured a keynote address by David Lawrence, Policy Director at the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and four panels of experts discussing the latest developments in competition law in the EU, UK and US. Key topics included the impact of AI and digital innovation, no-poach and non-compete provisions in the employment context, state aid and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, and developments in merger enforcement. Distinguished speakers from the EU, UK and US, representing diverse perspectives from regulatory authorities, academia, and industry, shared their insights on these pressing issues.

At the beginning of the year, we brought to your attention that a number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024: there are new laws that have been adopted and proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

A number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024. On the one hand, there are new laws that have been adopted and will start to bite, and, on the other, there are proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

In this alert we discuss recent developments in the regulation of third party funding since R (on the application of PACCAR Inc & Ors) v Competition Appeal Tribunal & Ors [2023] UKSC 28, (“PACCAR”) which we discussed in our prior alert. In Alex Neill Class Representative Limited v Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited et al. [2023] CAT 73, the first analysis of a third-party litigation funding agreement (“LFA”) to take place since PACCAR, finding that an optional payment mechanism based on a cut of damages “only to the extent enforceable and permitted by applicable law” will not render the whole LFA an unenforceable damages-based agreement (“DBA”). Meanwhile, the government intends to enact a legislative amendment to make non-lawyer LFAs for group opt-out competition proceedings enforceable, but calls have quickly begun for the government to go further.

In R (on the application of PACCAR Inc & Ors) v Competition Appeal Tribunal & Ors [2023] UKSC 28, the U.K. Supreme Court has declared litigation funding agreements based on a cut of damages to need to comply with the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013, while the Court of Appeal in Evans & O’Higgins v Barclays [2023] EWCA Civ 876 expands the scope of likely competition opt out litigation approval.

On 08 September 2022, the Russian Government issued a Russian Presidential decree which introduced a new vetting procedure regulating situations where “unfriendly” persons take part in transactions involving shareholdings in Russian limited liability companies.  These transactions are now subject to an approval decision by the Government Commission on Control over Foreign Investments before they can be completed.  This is the latest in a growing line of countermeasures being introduced by the Russian President to try to keep liquid assets within Russia and bolster the country’s financial markets.

The U.K.’s new national security regime under the National Security and Investment Act (the “NSI Act”) officially commenced on 4 January 2022. While the U.K. government can review any transactions which completed on or after 12 November 2020 (using its “call-in power”), the mandatory notification requirement only applies to transactions that sign on or after 4 January 2022. Notifications under the NSI Act can now be submitted electronically, using a template notification form.

On June 29, 2021, our annual EU Competition Law Conference took place (virtually this year), co-hosted by Crowell & Moring and King’s College London. During a panel discussion followed by a fireside chat, the speakers discussed how proposed and existing reforms in competition law across the globe are being or can be practically implemented. A video recording of the panel discussion and fireside chat is available here.

On 30 June 2021, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) outlined its plans for a new state subsidy regime, now that the UK is no longer bound by the State Aid rules of the European Union (see here). The UK is obliged by its commitments under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on subsidies, to maintain some form of subsidy control.However, in contrast to the EU regime, the proposed new UK system starts from the position that subsidies are permitted if they are in line with certain subsidy control principles, with no need to obtain any formal approval before granting the subsidy.

The U.K.’s National Security and Investment Bill was enacted into law as the National Security and Investment Act (the “NSI Act”) on 29 April 2021, with the new regime expected to come into force towards the end of this year. Over the coming months the U.K. government is to enact secondary legislation and provide further detail and guidance on the framework created by the NSI Act, including guidance on the regime’s extraterritorial scope and finalised definitions of the 17 sensitive sectors.