English Court of Appeal Decision on Piercing the Corporate Veil

The Court of Appeal has recently re-affirmed the circumstances in which the English Court will pierce the corporate veil. In doing so, however, it overturned a ground-breaking Commercial Court decision from 2011, in which the Commercial Court held that an individual who was the “puppeteer” behind a “puppet” company could be treated as being simultaneously, contractually liable for the contracts of the puppet company. This alert details the recent changes.