London 16/04/2014 - The UK High Court has told the London Metal Exchange (LME) that it cannot appeal against its late-March ruling that the exchange's original warehousing consultation and subsequent rule changes were unlawful.
This followed a challenge by Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal.
"The LME has not been granted leave to appeal," an exchange representative said.
"We continue to believe that Rusal’s complaint was without merit in its entirety and we are taking legal advice with regard to our next steps, including whether to apply to the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal and/or to re-consult," the LME said in a statement.
Because of the ruling, the LME was not able to implement changes to its warehouse linked load-in/load-out rates as scheduled on April 1.
Under the propsoed rule change, all metal loaded into a warehouse over a three-month period is measured. If there is a queue of more than 50 calendar days, the affected warehouse would be expected to deliver out additional metal based on a formula.
Rusal alleged that the market consultation that the exchange conducted before arriving at the decision was, among other things, unfair and procedurally flawed and constituted a breach of Rusal's human rights.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)