Sanctions Clauses: Lessons from the Court of Appeal

12 June 2026

The Court of Appeal has considered the effect of a sanctions clause that excused a party from performance where, in that party's reasonable judgment, it would otherwise be at risk of sanctions liability.  The unanimous judgment is commercial and pragmatic: it supports the use of desktop searches to identify potential risks; "common sense" when assessing those risks; and healthy scepticism of attempts to explain the risks away.

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