Supreme Court refusal to hear Dyson appeal ‘significant’ for overseas corporate accountability

Katie Hancock and Michael Fletcher of Pinsent Masons were commenting following the decision by the Supreme Court not to hear an appeal of the Court of Appeal’s decision, which held that claims against Dyson relating to alleged human rights abuses in Malaysia can be tried in the English High Court.

The case involves allegations of human rights abuses within Dyson’s supply chain in Southeast Asia. Former migrant workers allege they were subjected to exploitative conditions, including unlawful wage deductions, physical abuse and false imprisonment, while working at factories operated by two companies that were part of Dyson’s UK supply chain. These factories were part of Dyson’s supply chain until 2021. It is argued that the company bears responsibility for the exploitative labour practices at the factories producing its products.

Dyson had argued that the case should be heard in Malaysia, where the alleged abuses occurred. However, the Court of Appeal decision laid down the test which will be applied where parties want to bring claims of this nature against UK companies and the Supreme Court has decided that it does not need to hear an appeal of that decision.

Hancock said: “No decision has been made on liability, and the Dyson case will now proceed to trial, but it follows from this decision that UK entities may continue to be sued in the English courts in these supply chain claims.”

Fletcher said: “The Court of Appeal took a broad approach when deciding that England was the appropriate forum for this claim, on the basis that the claimants could access funding and a higher standard of legal service. In declining to permit an appeal, the Supreme Court has apparently been content to accept the broad approach. This underlines the risk for English corporates that they may be sued in England for issues arising in their overseas supply chains. It therefore remains critically important that such corporates implement appropriate policies and conduct robust due diligence in order to drive high standards of compliance across their supply chains globally.”