AXA Insurance UK PLC and another (Appellants) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue and another (Respondents)
| Court | Supreme Court |
| Judge | Lord Hodge ,Lord Hamblen ,Lord Leggatt ,Lady Rose ,Lord Richards ,Lord Reed |
| Judgment Date | 27 July 2026 |
| Neutral Citation | [2026] UKSC 24 |
| Hearing Date | 18 November 2025 |
| Docket Number | UKSC/2025/0005 |
| Respondent | Commissioners of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs |
Trinity Term
[2026] UKSC 24
On appeal from: [2024] EWCA Civ 1430
JUDGMENT
AXA Insurance UK PLC and another (Appellants) v
Commissioners of Inland Revenue and another
(Respondents)
before
Lord Hodge, Deputy President
Lord Hamblen
Lord Leggatt
Lady Rose
Lord Richards
JUDGMENT GIVEN ON
27 July 2026
Heard on 18 November 2025
Appellants
Jonathan Bremner KC
(Instructed by Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP)
Respondent
David Ewart KC
Barbara Belgrano
Laura Ruxandu
Frederick Wilmot-Smith
(Instructed by Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services HMRC)
Page 2
LADY ROSE AND LORD RICHARDS (with whom Lord Hodge and Lord
Hamblen agree):
1. Introduction
1. This appeal raises important issues about the operation of the innovative litigation
procedure that was introduced into the Civil Procedure Rules of England and Wales in
2000; the group litigation order or GLO. The rules governing this procedure are primarily
found in the Civil Procedure Rules Pt 19, rules 19.21–19.26. The typical situation in
which a GLO is made by the court is where there are a large number of different sets of
proceedings issued by claimants in the High Court or County Court usually against the
same defendants, raising the same or similar issues. If all the sets of proceedings go
forward in parallel, there is a risk of different judges arriving at different answers to what
are in effect the same legal or factual questions. If a GLO is made grouping the claims
together, the common issues of fact or law can be identified and one or more of the claims
can be chosen as a test case in which those issues are determined. The other proceedings
in the group are then stayed to await the result of the test case.
2. The procedure is intended to ensure consistency of result and to save time and
money for all the parties as well as for the court system. If other proceedings are issued
by new claimants raising the same issues, they can join the rest of the group by being
placed on the group register which is maintained by the court registry. The CPR governing
the GLO procedure provide that where a judgment or order is given or made in relation
to one or more group issues, that judgment or order is binding on all other claims on the
register at the time of the judgment or order “unless the court orders otherwise”: see CPR
r 19.23(1)(a). We refer to such other claims as “the follower claims”.
3. Sometimes each of the individual claims grouped together by a GLO is for a
relatively small amount of money. In those circumstances the cost of bringing each
individual claim would far outweigh the likely compensation to be won if the claim is
successful. The GLO procedure can be an important tool for ensuring access to justice.
That, however, is not true of the GLO with which this appeal is concer ned. The Controlled
Foreign Companies and Dividend Group was formed by the making of a GLO in July
2003 (“the CFC and Dividend GLO” or “the GLO”). Most of the proceedings on the
register set up for this GLO are claims for many millions of pounds and many of the
claimants are sophisticated international businesses. But it is important when addressing
the issues raised by this appeal to bear in mind the different kinds of GLOs that have been
made in the past and may be made in the future.
4. The claims brought in the proceedings covered by the CFC and Dividend GLO
allege that the claimants have paid tax under statutory taxing provisions which, it is now
accepted, were incompatible with the law of the European Union (“the EU”). The
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