One Essex Court is delighted that 5 members of chambers are involved in 2 of the appeals featured in The Lawyer’s recently published Top 10 Appeals of 2025.
Motor finance appeal
This three-day Supreme Court appeal scheduled for 1 April 2025 follows the Court of Appeal ruling that it was unlawful for motor finance brokers, including car dealers, to receive commissions from lenders without customers’ informed consent. Lenders Close Brothers and Firstrand Bank were granted permission to appeal; the FCA has applied for permission to intervene. The appeal to the Supreme Court, which concerns four motor finance agreements, could have far-reaching implications for the finance industry, making it potentially one of the most significant appeals of the year. Laurence Rabinowitz KC and Niranjan Venkatesan represent one of the appellants, Close Brothers, instructed by Slaughter and May and Walker Morris.
Phones 4U v EE and others
The £1bn decade-long dispute between Phones 4U and several of the country’s largest mobile networks heads to the Court of Appeal in May for this five-day hearing, which is set to consider fundamental questions of competition law. The case relates to O2, Vodafone and EE withdrawing supplies from Phones 4U in 2014 and subsequently entering an exclusive deal with Carphone Warehouse. The same year, Phones 4U went into administration. Following an 11-week trial in 2022 where Mr Justice Roth dismissed the case against the defendants, Phones 4U has been given permission to appeal on eight grounds, including the allegation that an exchange from 2012 between the then CEO of O2 and EE’s CEO qualifies as anti-competitive concerted practice. Kenneth MacLean KC, Owain Draper and Gideon Cohen form part of the counsel team representing the appellant, Phones 4U (in administration), instructed by Quinn Emanuel.
The full list of featured appeals can be seen here.