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.

Subscribe to the HSF Pensions Notes Blog here.

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

Changes to the Code rules on the companies to which the Takeover Code applies now in forceIn this episode of our public M&A podcast series, we talk about the changes to the Takeover Code that came into force on Monday 3 February 2025 and narrow the categories of company to which the Code applies.

In the episode, we discuss:

• the companies to which the Code still applies under the new rules;
• which companies are no longer in scope and the transitional arrangements that apply to them; and
• what happens when a company delists after 3 February 2025.

In this episode, Partner Christine Wong, Senior Associate David Kim and Solicitor Raymond Sun discuss cybersecurity and the impact of AI in financial services.

It’s the second episode of the HSF FSR Brief and this time the subject is the ongoing motor finance commissions saga. Jon Ford, Michael Tan, and Jack Moore discuss what the FCA has been up to, what is going on with its review into the industry, the links to claims due to be heard in the Supreme Court, and what might happen next.

For background on motor finance commission, read our November 2024 note here.

As ESG remains top of the agenda for many regulators in the UK and across Europe, we wanted our first episode in 2025 to bring you up to speed on some of the main ESG developments in the UK in 2024 from a regulatory perspective, and what we expect to see at the intersection between ESG and competition / consumer regulation in the UK this year.

Speakers: Susan Black, Partner, Competition, Regulation and Trade and co-Global Head of Consumer, Sam Tappenden, Senior Associate, Competition, Regulation and Trade and Kristien Geeurickx, Professional Support Consultant, Competition, Regulation and Trade