Penalty clauses: the "haphazardly constructed edifice" is rebuilt but not extended (Supreme Court): full update

In Cavendish Square Holding BV v El Makdessi and ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, the Supreme Court considered a combined appeal relating to whether certain contractual clauses were unenforceable penalties. This legal update provides a full analysis of the Supreme Court judgments, and sets out the questions to consider when assessing whether contractual clauses are penalties. (For a brief summary of the decision, see Legal update, Supreme Court restates penalty rule.)

Note: Lord Clarke made a late change to his single paragraph judgment in the Supreme Court decision, which was not reflected in the version originally published on the Supreme Court website. See Legal update, Late change to Supreme Court judgment in Cavendish and Parking Eye.