Specialists International
This Knowledge Check examines the costs judgment following the failure of the Process Claim and the Modifications Claim concerning the competition for the fourth National Lottery licence. The court decided whether the claimants' conduct justified indemnity costs for the whole proceedings and whether the Gambling Commission's costs should be reduced because of its disclosure exercise.
The New Lottery Company Limited and Northern & Shell PLC were the claimants. The Gambling Commission was the defendant, with Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, Allwyn International AG and Camelot UK Lotteries Limited participating as interested parties. At the consequentials hearing on 22 May 2026, Mrs Justice Joanna Smith DBE considered the claimants' pleadings, abandoned allegations, changes of case and the prejudice caused to the other parties and the court.
The court applied the out-of-the-norm test drawn from Three Rivers DC v Bank of England, Excelsior Commercial and Industrial Holdings Ltd v Salisbury Hammer Aspden & Johnson, and Hislop v Perde Kaur. It ordered the claimants to pay the defendant's and interested parties' costs of both claims on the indemnity basis and refused any percentage reduction to the defendant's costs.
- The parties and the two procurement claims
- The test for indemnity costs
- The scope of the claimants' concession
- The value and relief sought in the proceedings
- The abandonment and reformulation of allegations
- The weakness of the Process Claim and Modifications Claim
- The indemnity costs order for the whole proceedings
- The attempted reduction for disclosure costs