The Pensions Regulator will appear before the Upper Tribunal in January 2018 in the anti-avoidance case involving ITV.
ITV has been challenging the regulatory's decision to force it to put together proposals for how it will financially support the Box Clever pension scheme.
Box Clever was a joint venture combining the rental businesses of ITV (known at the time as Granada) and a number of Thorn entities. Its pension scheme has around 2,800 members and a buy0out deficit of more than £90m.
Now the Court of Appeal has rejected ITV's latest legal challenge over the evidence for the hearing, meaning the first substantive anti-avoidance hearing will go before the Upper Tribunal early next year.
Mike Birch, director of case management at TPR, said it is vital for the regulator to be able to introduce new evidence where appropriate when it is pursuing anti-avoidance cases.
He said: “The ruling also brings closer the prospect of greater certainty for members of the Box Clever Group Pension Scheme, which due to legal challenges by ITV has been delayed for six years.
"We have fought at every stage to bring our case for an Financial Support Direction and are pleased the courts have agreed with our position. This sends a clear message that we will not shy away from pursuing regulatory action to protect workplace pensions."
When the joint venture went ahead employees were transferred to the new company and enrolled in the Box Clever pension scheme, which was set up to ensure that those members would continue to receive the same benefits as promised in their former schemes.
Before the collapse TPR said ITV extracted "significant value" from the joint venture.
In 2011 TPR issued determination notices outlining why it was reasonable to issue Financial Support Directives (FSDs) to five companies that formed part of the ITV Group. An FSD requires its target to propose how they will financially support the scheme.
ITV originally went to the Upper Tribunal in January 2012 to challenge TPR’s determination to issue an FSD and began its challenge of the regulator's ability to submit additional evidence in late 2013.
At the end of July, the Court of Appeal refused permission for ITV to appeal against a ruling made in TPR's favour, to allow the introduction of new evidence in its case against the broadcaster.
An ITV spokesman said: "ITV has never participated in the Box Clever scheme and has had no control over the growth of its deficit.
"ITV believes strongly that there will be cases in which it is appropriate for the regulator to use its powers, but equally strongly that Box Clever is not one of them, and that the case against it is wholly unmeritorious.
"The Tribunal previously stated in its judgment that the regulator has not alleged, and does not allege now, that there was anything improper or negligent about ITV's conduct. Yet ITV is being pursued for unquantified sums in relation to a transaction that took place 17 years ago, before the regulator ever existed, and before the current powers it seeks to evoke were even on the statute book."
Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, said this was "clearly a messy and complex case".
For members of the scheme, “it seems there is no end in sight after six years of uncertainty about whether their pensions will be paid in full. Such uncertainty will clearly be distressing and one hopes the legal wrangling does not drag on for much longer,” he said.
“While the case is less high profile, there are parallels with the BHS scandal and the regulator is understandably keen to ensure that where it believes pension promises have been made, these are honoured in full,” he added.
The hearing examining TPR’s decision to issue an FSD is scheduled to start on 29 January 2018 and is expected to last for two weeks.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
