Business Law Library & Tracker
Selected Business Law Cases
Short explainers for court decisions that change how UK businesses handle contracts, staff, customers, IP and company duties.
Sources last reviewed 21 Sept 2026
Main law guides
122
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
60
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
146
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
17
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpWise Payments Limited v With Wise Limited & Ors
If you are choosing or changing a brand, do not stop at checking whether another business looks like a direct competitor. Map what your business actually does now,...
Abbey Healthcare (Mill Hill) Ltd v Augusta 2008 LLP
Collateral warranties should not be treated as interchangeable boilerplate. Developers, tenants, funders and contractors should check whether the document gives the...
Alex Not & Ors v Jaguar Land Rover Limited & Ors
For ordinary businesses, the durable lesson is less about diesel vehicles and more about how product complaints can scale. If many customers say the same product...
Andrew Prismall v Google UK Limited & Anor
Do not treat this case as permission to take broad rights over sensitive data. The court upheld the strike out because of the way the claim was framed as a...
Anthony John Wright and Geoffrey Paul Rowley & Ors v Dominic Joseph Andrew Chappell & Ors (Re BHS Group Ltd & Ors (in liquidation))
For ordinary business owners, the practical lesson is simple: once your company is in serious financial trouble, board decisions need to become more disciplined,...
Artcrafts International SpA v MOU Limited
Read this case as a contract wording and channel-management lesson. It does not create a blanket rule for every exclusive arrangement, because the injunction...
Christine Self v Santander Cards UK Limited
For small and mid-sized businesses in consumer finance, the practical lesson is not that any standard form will always block later claims. The lesson is narrower...
Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs v Professional Game Match Officials Ltd
Flexibility before an assignment does not prevent employment obligations arising during an accepted assignment. Businesses using casual or assignment-by-assignment...
Costcutter Supermarkets Group Limited v Ameet Kumar Vaish & Anor
If your contract says a customer must pay for goods delivered, a general liability cap may not be enough to let that customer avoid the invoice. The court treated...
Domestic & General Group Limited & Ors v Premier Protect Holdings Limited & Ors
If your business sells plans, subscriptions or cover products by phone, this case shows that the biggest legal risk is not just what your own staff say, but what...
Engineer.AI Global Limited v Appy Pie Ltd & Anor
If your brand leans on a common descriptive word, treat evidence as part of the brand asset. Keep UK-specific sales figures, campaign records, website metrics,...
Extreme Networks Limited v Extreme E Limited
If you are launching a new brand, do not assume you are safe just because your business does something slightly different from an earlier trade mark owner. This...
Hendy Group Ltd v Daniel Kennedy
If you are making someone redundant, do not treat redeployment as a box-ticking exercise. This case shows that fairness may depend on whether you took reasonable...
Lifestyle Equities CV and another v Ahmed and another
For business owners, this case draws a practical line between company exposure and personal exposure in brand disputes. If your company uses a sign that infringes...
Lifestyle Equities CV v Amazon UK Services Ltd
Cross-border ecommerce teams should not assume that a foreign website stays legally foreign. Currency, delivery, checkout wording, search results and customer...
Lipton and another v BA Cityflyer Ltd
If your business operates flights or handles passenger claims, do not assume that last-minute crew illness will excuse compensation. The Supreme Court treated the...
Marcus Gervase Johnson v Firstrand Bank Limited (London Branch) t/a Motonovo Finance
If your business arranges consumer finance as part of a sale, do not assume the lender carries all the legal risk. In the court’s scenario, the dealer was a credit...
Meta Platforms Inc & Ors v Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen
If your business runs a digital service, this case is a warning not to treat user data as a free add-on just because your service has no cash price. The court...
Morley’s (Fast Foods) Limited v Jeyatharini Sivakumar & Ors
The practical message is clear. If your business has settled a branding dispute, do not treat the approved logo as a flexible starting point for future redesigns....
Oakwood Solicitors Ltd v Menzies
The lasting lesson is about billing process, customer communication and evidence. If your business can take fees from money it holds for a customer, do not assume a...
Options UK Personal Pensions LLP v Financial Ombudsman Service Limited
If your firm is FCA-regulated, do not assume that execution-only wording or no-advice declarations will protect you from a complaint about losses. This case shows...
P Patel v DPD Group UK Limited
The practical point is not that any substitution clause will do. A clause only helps if it is genuine, broad enough to matter, and consistent with how the...
Panasonic Holdings Corporation v Xiaomi Technology UK Limited & Ors
If your business uses standardised technology and is prepared to take a court-determined FRAND licence, say so early, document it clearly and keep that position...
Rajinder Kumar & Ors v LSC Finance Limited
If your business lends or borrows against land, do not treat purpose wording as boilerplate. A court will look at the actual intended use of the land and the real...
Restaurant EC3 Limited v Tavor Holdings Limited
If your business is in dispute with a landlord over forfeiture, do not assume that an unlawful re-entry claim will automatically cancel out rent arrears in...
RTI Ltd v MUR Shipping BV
A force majeure clause should say whether workarounds can include alternative payment, delivery or performance. Without clear wording, a reasonable-endeavours...
SkyKick UK Ltd v Sky Ltd
Trade mark applications should match a real commercial plan. Filing for everything can backfire if the specification has no proper rationale. Startups should seek...
Tesco Stores Ltd v USDAW
Employers should be careful with promises described as permanent, guaranteed or protected. Cost pressure later may not justify undoing a carefully negotiated...
The Financial Conduct Authority v London Property Investments (UK) Limited (t/a LPI Emergency Property Finance) & Ors
For ordinary businesses, the practical lesson is simple: if you operate in the space between distressed homeowners and lenders, do not assume you are just an...
THG PLC & Ors v Zedra Trust Company (Jersey) Limited
If your business is dealing with a shareholder dispute, do not assume the section 994 label answers the timing question. Start with the act being challenged, the...
Walter Hugh Merricks CBE v Mastercard Incorporated & Ors
For ordinary businesses, the main lesson is not about running a card scheme. It is about litigation risk travelling through a supply chain. The claim alleged that...
WaterRower (UK) Limited v Liking Limited (t/a Topiom)
Do not read this case as saying copied products are safe. The narrower lesson is that WaterRower’s copyright case failed on subsistence, despite accepted copying,...
Barton v Morris
A conditional fee can be all or nothing. If the parties want a reduced fee for a near miss, a different sale price or a changed transaction structure, they need to...
Canada Square Operations Ltd v Potter
The safest reading for business owners is straightforward. Do not assume that six years automatically closes off risk if your business model depended on not telling...
Philipp v Barclays Bank UK PLC
The case matters for payment controls and fraud prevention. Businesses should not assume the bank will catch authorised fraud payments. Internal approval controls,...
Sara & Hossein Asset Holdings Ltd v Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd
Commercial lease service charge clauses can control cash flow first and arguments later. Tenants should understand certification, payment timing and dispute rights...