"UK Supreme Court refuses to grant Dyson permission to appeal the first jurisdiction challenge post-Brexit"

On 6 May 2025, the UK Supreme Court refused an application by members of the Dyson electronics corporate group seeking permission to appeal a Court of Appeal (CA) ruling that claims by factory workers in their Malaysian supply chain can be heard in the English courts…

The Claimants argued that there were real risks they would be unable to access substantial justice in Malaysia. The impecunious migrant workers would have been unable to pay for appropriately experienced legal representation, whereas Leigh Day were acting on a no-win-no-fee basis in England…  

The Defendants…

…argued that the CA’s focus on the UK Defendants’ domicile and their UK in-house counsel risked business uncertainty for multinational groups with English-domiciled entities…this ignored the context of the Defendants’ “truly international” supply chain…

The judgment significantly strengthens the position of individuals affected by business-related human rights abuses bringing claims before the courts of England and Wales. The CA made clear that companies cannot rely on the global nature of their operations to avoid proceedings in England while conducting substantial global functions from this jurisdiction. Further, the inherent imbalance of power between multinational corporations and those affected by their supply chain will now weigh against successful jurisdiction challenges…defendants cannot seek to in effect choose the forum by offering undertakings designed to make a foreign jurisdiction appear more favourable…