The Supreme Court Decision in PACCAR

On 26 July 2023, the Supreme Court gave judgment in R (PACCAR Inc) v Competition Appeal Tribunal [2023] UKSC 28. Jonathan Nash KC and William Edwards review this important decision.

In summary, the majority has concluded that the litigation-funding arrangements in issue in PACCAR, typical of those now used in commercial cases, are by statute “unenforceable”.

The decision gives rise to many questions which this summary does not seek to answer. Will there be legislative intervention? How, if at all, can current funding arrangements be brought into an enforceable form? Will those who have paid funders under what were thought to be (but now turn out not to have been) enforceable agreements seek to recover what they have paid the funders in a restitutionary claim?

Read the note in full here.