Unfair Prejudice Petition

Section 994 of the Companies Act 2006 gives a company member a route to court where they are being unfairly treated, short of having to wind the company up. A member may apply to the court by petition for an order on the ground that the company's affairs are being or have been conducted in a manner that is unfairly prejudicial to the interests of members generally or of some part of its members, including at least the petitioner themselves.

The petition can be brought over past conduct, an ongoing course of conduct, or even a proposed future act or omission, so a minority shareholder does not have to wait for the harm to be complete before applying to the court. In practice, the most common outcome is a court order requiring the other shareholders to buy the petitioner's shares at a fair value, rather than winding the company up.