APP ("authorised push payment") fraud and related cyber frauds have featured heavily in the financial and mainstream press lately. These scams involve the victim being tricked into making an instant electronic payment to fraudsters instead of the intended recipient.

The industry has taken note, and a voluntary code for Payment Services Providers is currently under consultation. If it is adopted in 2019, it will provide for compensation for certain victims in certain circumstances. However it is unlikely to assist those who have already fallen victim, and it may not assist SMEs and larger businesses.

The average loss in APP scams in the first half of 2018 was around £10,000. Those cases do not get anywhere near the desk of the commercial litigator. However some criminals set their sights higher, and losses ranging from £250k to several £m are increasingly common. In those cases the question of civil recovery against parties involved in the transaction can loom large.

Can Yeginsu (4 New Square Chambers) and Ceyda Knoebel (Gibson Dunn) examine the definition of “investment”, often a critical threshold question of jurisdiction in investor state arbitration.  

A talk by Sir Rupert Jackson to the Hong Kong Society of Construction Law on 21st September 2018

A talk by Sir Rupert Jackson at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre on 20th September 2018

Helen Evans of 4 New Square examines the recent authorities looking at negligently conducted litigation, and asks if change is in store when the topic reaches the Supreme Court in late 2018.