Mr Michael Lambrianos v Nowy Styl UK Limited — 2023

Following the substantive judgment sent on 10 March 2023, the Tribunal recorded that the respondent owed Mr Michael Lambrianos outstanding commission of £716.40. This later decision concerned only cross-applications for costs: the claimant applied for £2,600 for counsel's fees, and the respondent opposed that application and sought £700 of its own costs in responding.

The Tribunal held that its power to award costs under Rule 76 was not engaged. It said the claim had substantially failed, that the findings in the claimant's favour represented only a very small part of what he had sought to recover, and that the respondent's concessions before and during the hearing were pragmatic and sensible and of a kind encouraged by the Tribunal. The Tribunal also found there was no proper ground for saying the respondent had acted unreasonably either in deciding to defend the claim or in the way its defence was conducted. Although it accepted that the respondent had been put to unnecessary expense by the claimant's costs application and said it saw the force of the respondent's objections, it declined to make a costs order for either party and refused both applications.