Practice Overview

Gareth Shires has a busy and wide-ranging practice dealing with commercial and civil litigation across a variety of sectors. He regularly appears in the High Court both as a led junior and as sole counsel.

Gareth’s commercial practice has a particular focus on consumer protection and environmental issues, including those involving European and competition law.  He is experienced in handling jurisdictional issues and claims involving foreign law.

He also has a particular interest and expertise in conspiracy, fraud, and consumer contract issues, as well as in telecommunications.  He has been retained as counsel for a major telecommunications company for over a decade and has conducted litigation on their behalf across the country.

Gareth was a member of the claimant counsel team in the Volkswagen NOx Emissions Litigation, instructing on behalf of almost 90,000 claimants, until that case settled in mid-2022.  He is now instructed by the claimants in the Mercedes NOx Emissions Litigation and is also instructed in claims against 13 other vehicle manufacturers, including Ford, Peugeot-Citroen, and Nissan/Renault.

Gareth has wide-ranging expertise in all manner of group litigation disputes, and has handled commercial, consumer, environmental, data protection and product liability actions all subject either to formal Group Litigation Orders or some other form of collective case management.

He has been ranked as a leading Junior in the Group Litigation category of Chambers and Partners since its inception three years ago.

Examples of his recent and ongoing cases include:

• The Volkswagen NOx Emissions Litigation
• The Mercedes NOx Emissions Litigation and the subsequent ‘Pan-NOx litigation against, among others, Ford, Citroen-Peugeot and Nissan/Renault
• The JJML POP Products Litigation and the JJML SUI Products Litigation
• The Essure Medical Products Litigation
• Equifax data breach litigation
• Ticketmaster data breach litigation