Michael Polak involved in submissions relating to Shein’s abandoned London listing

Following submissions from a legal team including Michael Polak, Shein has halted its plans to list in London.

Michael worked as part of a legal team that submitted evidence and a pre-action letter to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to block Shein from listing in London, as part of their client, Stop Uyghur Genocide’s legal campaign against the listing. Plans from the group to launch a judicial review of approval of Shein’s proposed London listing were also announced in February.

Reuters has reported that Shein’s proposed London IPO unexpectedly failed to secure approval from Chinese regulators, with a source claiming that the proposed judicial review complicated the London listing and risked “embarrassment” for the Chinese government.

The team’s submissions argued that the FCA has a duty to prevent the UK markets from being used to launder criminal property. This followed the Court of Appeal decision in WUC v NCA, whereby it was held that paying for goods made from slave labour does not cleanse them, or the proceeds of their sale, from being the proceeds of crime.

Michael was instructed by Ricardo Gama of Leigh Day solicitors and was led by Jamas Hodivala KC of Matrix Chambers and acted with Toby Fisher and Simon Pritchard.