UK: England and Wales: parent company liability in tort for subsidiary company actions or omissions

The UK Supreme Court gave judgment today in Vedanta Resources PLC v Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20: see here (pdf). A summary of the judgment is available here (pdf). Of particular interest is that part of the judgment in which Lord Briggs (with whom Lady Hale, Lord Wilson, Lord Hodge and Lady Black agreed) considered the potential liability of a parent company in tort for the actions (or omissions) of its subsidiary companies.

Lord Briggs stated (at para. [49]) that parent company liability for the activities of subsidiary companies was not, of itself, a distinct category of liability in common law negligence.  He rejected the argument that a parent company could never incur a duty of care in respect of its subsidiaries' activities merely by the adoption of group-wide policies and guidelines and the expectation that the management of each subsidary would comply (para. [52]).  He further stated (at para. [53]):

Even where group-wide policies do not of themselves give rise to such a duty of care to third parties, they may do so if the parent does not merely proclaim them, but takes active steps, by training, supervision and enforcement, to see that they are implemented by relevant subsidiaries. Similarly, it seems to me that the parent may incur the relevant responsibility to third parties if, in published materials, it holds itself out as exercising that degree of supervision and control of its subsidiaries, even if it does not in fact do so. In such circumstances its very omission may constitute the abdication of a responsibility which it has publicly undertaken".