Kevin de Haan KC

Practice Areas

Kevin has almost 4 decades experience handling all aspects of consumer protection, consumer credit and product safety law at national, European and international level. An internationally acknowledged expert in all aspects of e-commerce regulation, he has been closely involved in the development of the online gambling industry since its inception in the 1990s. He is regularly instructed in cross-border disputes involving difficult jurisdictional issues.

He appeared for Purely Creative Limited in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, a landmark case concerning the scope of the banned practices listed in Annex 1 of the Unfair Consumer Practices Directive [2012] 1 CMLR 21.

He recently appeared for the Civil Aviation Authority in two cases concerning whether events that caused flights to be cancelled amounted to “extraordinary circumstances” for the purposes of Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) 261/2004, exempting the air carrier from its obligation to pay compensation to affected passengers pursuant to the Regulation.

In Ryanair DAC v The CAA [2022] EWCA Civ 76, The Court of Appeal decided that union-led industrial action by air and cabin crew employed by Ryanair did not constitute “extraordinary circumstances”.

In Lipton & another v BA Cityflyer Ltd [2024] UKSC 24, the Supreme Court decided that pilot sickness, likewise, did not amount to “extraordinary circumstances”. This case is also the seminal authority on how assimilated EU law is to be applied in cases where the cause of action accrued before IP Completion Day, but the matter is litigated after that date.