In a recent case in which we acted for the respondent, the Supreme Court of Cyprus has, for the first time, recognized that where a Norwich Pharmacal disclosure order is granted, an implied undertaking is imposed on the party in whose favour the order is issued. This undertaking restricts the use of the disclosed documents exclusively to the purpose for which the order was sought and obtained, unless the court order expressly provides otherwise.
The Supreme Court accepted our submission that the English approach should be followed in preference to the Canadian position, which was relied upon by the appellant and under which the implied undertaking does not extend to Norwich Pharmacal-type disclosure orders.
By confirming the existence of the implied undertaking, the Supreme Court upheld the first-instance decision striking out proceedings that had been issued in breach of that undertaking as an abuse of process.
Our litigation partner George Charalambous acted for the successful respondent.
The judgment is available at: https://www.cylaw.org/cgi-bin/open.pl?file=/supreme/2025/202511-104-17PolEf.html
