Your commercial news round-up: Manchester City, 'Dieselgate', AI, Argentina

Anna O’Boyle is acting senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net 

Reading time: four minutes 

Manchester City may be forced to reimburse the Premier League's legal costs after being found guilty of the majority of charges brought against the club. In other news, the legal battle concerning the long-running 'Dieselgate' scandal looks set to continue as claimants intend to appeal the July ruling. Meanwhile, the Bank of England governor has warned of the significant risks to financial stability that increasingly powerful AI models pose and Argentina's President has called for an end to Britain's offshore oil project located near the Falkland Islands. Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories. 

• Manchester City could be required to pay the Premier League almost £50 million in legal costs after an independent commission found the club guilty of all but one of the charges brought against it relating to breaches of the league’s financial rules. The commission concluded that City had artificially inflated its income by £900 million over a nine-year period through “sham” contracts designed to boost revenue and comply with spending rules. The club’s CEO Ferran Soriano has said the club would fight the case, describing the ruling as an “opinion” that contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact”. Legal experts estimate the case has generated more than £100 million in costs, with the Premier League’s expenses expected to exceed £70 million. While the final compensation figure will be determined once proceedings conclude, lawyers told The Guardian that successful parties can typically recover around 70% of their legal costs. 

• More than one million motorists are seeking permission to appeal a High Court ruling in the long-running 'Dieselgate' litigation. Claimants alleged that software installed in vehicles from 2009 reduced the effectiveness of emissions controls under test conditions, while higher levels of pollutants were produced during normal road use. In July, the High Court ruled that only three of the 20 vehicles examined contained prohibited defeat devices, finding largely in favour of the car manufacturers, including Mercedes, Ford and Nissan, accused of using emissions control software. Law firms Leigh Day and Pogust Goodhead, which represent around 1.6 million vehicle owners in what is described as the largest group claim ever brought in the UK, intend to challenge the judgment. They argue that the court adopted an overly narrow interpretation of what constitutes a prohibited defeat device and want aspects of the technical evidence to be reconsidered.  

• Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has called for society to retain the “right to intervene” in the AI industry, warning that powerful AI models pose “real and increasingly significant” risks to financial stability. Citing concerns that the new technology has increased the “scale and sophistication of cyber threats to the financial system”, Bailey warned that rogue models could disrupt card payments, bank transactions and stock and bond trading. While emphasising that the potential benefits of AI are “immense”, Bailey argued that authorities should be able to establish and revise boundaries for AI systems as the technology evolves. Recently, a growing number of lawmakers, AI researchers and some AI companies have advocated for increased government oversight of AI. However, hopes for international cooperation faded after the US dismissed calls for further AI regulation, citing fears it could threaten economic growth. 

• Argentina has threatened legal action against the UK over the Sea Lion oil project, an offshore oilfield being developed by British and Israeli companies near the Falkland Islands. President Javier Milei has set a two-week deadline for drilling to stop. If the deadline passes without action, Milei will seek a temporary halt through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a Hamburg-based maritime court, alleging that the project would cause “irreversible and irreparable” harm. Argentina claims the project constitutes the illegal exploitation of Argentine resources and has also announced plans to sanction oil companies operating around the islands. Emboldened by US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Washington may reconsider its neutral stance on the territory, Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s claim to the Falklands and criticised the international community’s handling of the dispute earlier this month. The UK has rejected Argentina’s sovereignty claim, maintaining that Falkland Islanders have the right to self-determination and to develop their natural resources. 

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