Articles by Kirstin Ridley

U.S.-Style Google iPhone Privacy Case Viewed as a Landmark for UK Class Actions

A proposed multi-billion pound British class action against Google, which alleges the internet giant secretly tracked millions of iPhone users, is not viable and should not be allowed to proceed, the Supreme Court was told on Wednesday. Antony White, a …

TikTok Faces Damages Claim Worth Billions in London Child-Privacy Lawsuit

LONDON – TikTok, the wildly popular video app, and its Chinese parent ByteDance could face a damages claim worth billions of pounds (dollars) in London’s High Court over allegations they illegally harvested the private data of millions of European children. …

Mastercard Battles Attempts to Expand Scope of $19B Class Action in UK

LONDON – Mastercard, a global payment processor, is battling attempts to add about 14 million deceased people to a 14 billion pound-plus ($19.3 billion) British class action in an effort to limit the scope of the historic case. A Mastercard …

Lawsuit Against BHP over Brazil Dam Collapse Fails on Appeal in English Court

LONDON – A 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group said on Wednesday it had failed to resurrect a 5.0 billion pound ($6.9 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP over a devastating 2015 dam failure. The Court of Appeal agreed with …

Insurers Face Disputes with Their Reinsurers over UK COVID-19 Business Income Claims

Top insurance companies, ordered by Britain’s highest court to pay thousands of small businesses millions of pounds in claims for COVID-19 disruption, are facing a battle with reinsurers over who should foot the bill, industry sources said. Bars, beauty parlors, …

UK High Court Allows Suit Against Shell by Nigerian Farmers, Fishermen Over Oil Spills

The UK Supreme Court on Friday allowed a group of 42,500 Nigerian farmers and fishermen to sue Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in English courts after years of oil spills in the Niger Delta contaminated land and groundwater. Senior judges said …

Facebook Faces 2nd UK Class Action Lawsuit over Data Harvesting Scandal

Facebook is facing a second London High Court class action over allegations it failed to protect the personal details of about one million people in England and Wales, in the latest lawsuit to spring from a scandal over data harvesting. …

UK Supreme Court Rules Businesses Should Be Insured for COVID-19 Claims

Small businesses, from restaurants to nightclubs and wedding planners to beauty parlors, on Friday won the right to insurance payouts after Britain’s highest court ruled many policies should cover losses caused by coronavirus lockdowns. Six of the world’s largest commercial …

Insurers Using Counter-Intuitive Arguments to Escape COVID Liabilities: UK Regulator

Insurers are trying to escape liability for pandemic-related business losses with counter-intuitive arguments that go against the essential purpose of insurance, Britain’s markets watchdog told the UK Supreme Court on Tuesday. A lawyer for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which …

Insurers Tell UK Supreme Court They Cannot Provide Unlimited Cover During Pandemic

Major insurance companies told the UK Supreme Court on Monday that thousands of small companies battered by the coronavirus pandemic were not eligible for business interruption payouts and to suggest differently was “reverse engineering.” On the first day of a …