The New Lottery Company Limited & Anor v The Gambling Commission [2026] EWHC 1311 (TCC)

This costs judgment followed the dismissal of the claimants' challenge to the award of the Fourth National Lottery Licence. One of the two main costs issues was whether the claimants' conduct justified an award of costs on the indemnity basis rather than the standard basis.

Mrs Justice Joanna Smith found that the claimants had run broad and scattergun allegations that were not supported by adequate evidence and were abandoned or changed at trial, having put the Commission and the interested parties to very considerable expense in meeting them. That conduct ran through the whole of the case and was highly unreasonable, and it warranted indemnity costs across the entirety of the proceedings, both to compensate and to mark the court's disapproval.

The case shows the costs consequences of pursuing a large procurement challenge on shifting and inadequately evidenced grounds. Conduct of that kind, sustained through the litigation, can take a case out of the norm and attract indemnity costs for the whole proceedings.

Mrs Justice Joanna Smith held that the conduct "plainly warrants an order for indemnity costs in relation to the entirety of the proceedings".