Handing down judgment in Commission Recovery Ltd v Marks & Clerk LLP [2023] EWHC 398 (Comm) last week, Mr Justice Robin Knowles held the claimant had met the threshold for representative claimants set out by the Supreme Court in Lloyd v Google [2021] UKSC 50.
Non-practising solicitor Peter Rouse is the sole director of the claimant company, which alleges Marks & Clerk earned tens of millions of pounds in undisclosed commissions, and seeks the recovery of these.
However, Marks & Clerk and Clarivate (formerly CPA Global, which the claimant alleges paid the commissions) deny any wrongdoing.
Daniel Spendlove, partner at Signature Litigation, representing the claimant, said the judgment was ‘significant for the legal industry, providing greater clarity on the limits of England and Wales’ representative action regime.’