Macfarlanes has acted for Russian aluminium giant Rusal on its successful application for a judicial review against the London Metal Exchange. 

As reported by Reuters, the LME had planned to introduce changes to reduce the queues to access metal from warehouses. Rusal hit back saying the measures would damage the prices of its products and called for a review.

The judgement was handed down yesterday (27 March).

The LME said it was taking legal advice and is considering launching an appeal or a re-consultation on its reforms.

The case was heard at the High Court last month before Mr Justice Phillips.

Head of construction and engineering at Macfarlanes Simon Nurney led the team acting for Rusal. Macfarlanes worked alongside Dimitry Afanasiev and Robin Wittering of Moscow based law firm Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, together with corporate and tax partner Paul Hauser at Bryan Cave.

Macfarlanes instructed Monica Carss-Frisk QC and James Segan of Blackstone Chambers.

In a statement, Oleg Deripaska, CEO of RUSAL said: "We welcome this decision by the High Court and look forward to working closely with the LME, and indeed all key stakeholders, to ensure that the revised consultation period and subsequent rule changes serve to increase the integrity of price discovery and transparency across the market, which we believe are the key issues continuing to face the sector."