Published on 16 May 2022

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 37398/21 ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS LIMITED against the United Kingdom lodged on 22 July 2021 communicated on 28 April 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

Like MGN Limited v. the United Kingdom (no. 39401/04, 18 January 2011), the present case concerns the recoverability of success fees where proceedings are brought against a newspaper by claimants who have entered into a conditional fee arrangement (“CFA”). It also raises a separate issue about the recoverability of After the Event (“ATE”) insurance premiums underwriting a claimant’s liability to pay the defendant’s costs.

Following the Court’s judgment in MGN Limited , recoverable success fees in publication and privacy proceedings were only abolished with effect from 6 April 2019. ATE premiums continue to be recoverable. The applicant’s present complaint concerns its liability to pay success fees and ATE premiums incurred in two separate cases in which it was successfully sued in respect of content published in its newspapers and/or on its websites.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Have domestic remedies been exhausted within the meaning of Article 35 § 1 of the Convention?

2. Did the recoverability of the claimants’ success fees and ATE premiums violate the applicant’s rights under Article 10 of the Convention (see, mutatis mutandis , MGN Limited v. the United Kingdom (no. 39401/04, 18 January 2011)?

3. Does the recoverability of the ATE premiums raise any separate issues under Article 10 of the Convention from the recoverability of the success fees?