Scheme mergers are common enough – but not like this one. The Arcadia case involved a merger of schemes in winding-up, with an overfunded scheme effectively bailing out a scheme in deficit. Why did the Court give its blessing? And what does this tell us about trustee powers and duties? Pensions Counsel Rob Klepka joins to discuss.

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Following the publication of the long-awaited Government Guidance on reasonable fraud prevention procedures, this episode seeks to help organisations prepare for failure to prevent fraud, the new offence which will come into effect on 1 September 2025. As part of this episode, Kate Meakin, Elizabeth Head and Alexandra Fitzgerald discuss the Guidance and in particular how organisations should be implementing its principles-based approach. While the Guidance is not prescriptive, it does provide some helpful advice on what the Government intended by 'reasonable' fraud prevention procedures, which the speakers explore as well as providing some practical considerations that organisations should be giving thought to now and how they can best prepare over the coming months. You can also read our accompanying briefing on this topic, which is available on our blog.

In this 29th episode of our series of commercial litigation update podcasts, we focus on developments relating to class actions, where there has been a huge amount of activity over the past couple of months. We will discuss cases brought under the CPR 19.8 representative action proceedings, group litigation orders, and the competition collective proceedings regime in the Competition Appeal Tribunal. This episode is hosted by Maura McIntosh, a knowledge counsel in our litigation team, who is joined by Gregg Rowan, a disputes partner, and Joe Williams, a senior associate in our competition, regulation and trade team.

Below you can find links to our blog posts on the developments and cases covered in this podcast.

• Data class actions: Court of Appeal upholds decision blocking "opt-out" representative action for misuse of private information
• High Court refuses to allow representative action to be brought on behalf of copyright owners in IP case
• Court of Appeal rejects attempt to bring securities class action using CPR 19.8 representative action as an "opt-in" procedure
• High Court rejects "price/market reliance" for s.90A and Schedule 10A FSMA claims
• High Court finds companies can assert privilege against their shareholders
• Group litigation orders: Court of Appeal considers binding effect of decisions in test cases
• Court of Appeal finds claimants cannot be forced to pursue claims for environmental damage as "global claims"
• Opt-out competition class action rejected due to unsuitability of proposed class representative (PCR)
• Competition class actions: First case to go to trial ends in failure