The Groceries Code Adjudicator (the “GCA”) was set up in June 2013 to ensure that large retailers with a turnover of over £1bn comply with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the “Code”). This statutory body h...
The German Federal Cartel Office (“Bundeskartellamt”, BKartA) has issued a decision stating that attempts by Germany’s largest supermarket, EDEKA, to force suppliers to grant it so called “wedding rebates”, in the form ...
At the end of July, the US and the EU escalated their respective sanctions regimes against Russia following the Kremlin’s intervention in the Crimea/Ukraine crisis, as well as recent issues pertaining to access to the MH17 crash site. By annou...
European Commission aims to level the playing field between suppliers and large customers by introducing recommendations on unfair trade practices The European Commission recently adopted a Communication encouraging EU Member States to look at ways ...
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) recently announced the intention of the Chinese competition authorities to step up the number of their investigations into possible anti-competitive and abusive market conduct. Chinese co...
During major sporting events, certain brands will actively pursue an “ambush marketing” strategy meaning that they will deliberately seek to associate their products with an event, despite not being one of the official sponsors. However,...
Pensions Regulator publishes details of first enforcement action for auto-enrolment non-compliance The Pensions Regulator has published its first section 89 report relating to breaches of the aut...
The protection of brands is a key issue for many businesses, particularly for those brands which are consumer facing. One aspect of brand protection is the protection of brands in domain names. Until recently, the number of generic top l...
The director of cartels in the EUs antitrust department, Eric Van Ginderachter, stated last week that the food sector in Europe will see increased cartel enforcement activity in 2014 by the European antitrust regulator, the European Commission (Co...
The escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in many businesses being unable to perform their contractual obligations to their customers, whether by being unable to perform at all, or finding that they are having to delay performance signifi...
Introduction on e-signature In general terms, the use of any form of electronic signature (“e-signature(s)”) may be per se valid, binding and enforceable in Italy. The Italian Legislative Decree No. 82, dated March 7, 2005 (so-called &l...
Introduction One of the many implications of the Coronavirus outbreak is a renewed focus on contract terms that allow suppliers early warning of customer financial difficulty. However, for suppliers of IT, English insolvency legislation prevents tho...
1.1 What impact might production downtime or circumstances with similar effect have on supply contracts? Reduced production or similar measurements and resulting supply shortages can cause severe problems to distributors or intermediaries, as they ...
1.1 Which Corona related administrative orders must be differentiated in Germany and what are their effects? The local health departments are, on a case-by-case basis, entitled to prohibit the happening of any kind of event that includes a significa...
As the outbreak of the latest coronavirus spreads across the globe, the consequences for commercial transactions are evolving. From what was initially a shorter term focus on immediate impact, all of us in business are now in the position of plannin...
Overview On 28 November 2019, the European Banking Authority (“EBA”) published its final guidelines[1] on information and communication technology (“ICT”) and security risk management (EBA/GL/2019/04) (the “Guidelines&r...
What is EIOPA? What is the purpose of the Guidelines? Who do they apply to? On 1 July 2019, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) published its consultation paper1 (the “<...
Following the European and Belgian legislation on anti-money laundering, all Belgian enterprises that are not natural persons (companies, non-profit organisations, trusts, fiducies and similar entities) are obliged to register their ultimate benefic...
As governments around the world battle to contain Coronavirus, the scale of economic disruption and impact on businesses cannot be underestimated. It is easy to see why some have predicted a rise in disputes work arising out of the unfolding global ...
Civil cases are usually built around two cornerstones: contemporaneous documents and witness statements. In 2019 the Business and Property Courts implemented a pilot with the aim of streamlining the process for the disclosure of contemporaneous docu...
Email scams are becoming more and more difficult to spot. Hackers replicate genuine email traffic, posing as genuine suppliers providing invoices that appear genuine. It is often only when the supplier chases on payment, which as far as...
Introduction The Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011 (“the Bill”) was published on Friday 16 December 2011. The Bill is intended to give effect to an EU Directive (Directive 2008/104/EC) on...
VAT treatment of vouchers provided to employees under salary sacrifice You will no doubt have been made aware of the recent CJEU (formerly European Court of Justice) ruling in AstraZeneca. The case involved AstraZeneca and the retail vouchers that ...
After what has already proved a busy week for employment law news, the Government has published its consultation response to the second round of consultation on Agency Worker Regulations, which closed in December last year. The...
Pension Ombudsman determinations are a snap shot of issues which can and do arise in relation to the LGPS. This speedbrief looks at two recent determinations relating to the construction of the LGPS Regulations and the effect of in...
If you have not yet responded to the Eversheds survey as to the likely impact of the changes to agency worker rights upon your business and would like to do so by 13 June, please click here. Main body The topics of equal rights for age...
The Government has today announced that from next April, the right to request flexible working will be extended to all parents of children aged up to 16 years. It is estimated that an additional 4.5 million parents will benefit from the right. Sinc...
Gordon Brown has announced that the Government plans to introduce legislation giving new rights to agency workers and working parents in the next parliamentary session. In addition, all workers are to be given the right to ask for time off wor...
Many employers offer flexible benefits packages to their workforce. But the Age Discrimination Regulations have cast a shadow over some schemes, leaving employers and providers unsure as to how benefits such as private medical insurance should be ac...
Good and bad news Yesterday, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced some changes to the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) legislation, which will impact on those companies operating EMI and those proposing to do so. The good news Under the cu...
The Chancellor has announced some important changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime. These changes may have a significant impact on the tax payable by your employees holding shares in your company traded on the full list. Abolition of taper r...
In a somewhat timely judgment, bearing in mind the May bank holidays, the Court of Session (the Scottish Court of Appeal) has clarified that it is not necessarily unlawful for an employer to not provide alternative leave days for part-time workers w...
Following a government call to extend flexible working rights to all workers, including non-parents, employment law experts at Eversheds believe the move could prevent tensions arising between workers with children and those without. Research condu...
December to April is bonus season. According to the latest annual report from the Office for National Statistics, bonuses for UK staff have reached a record £19 billion, a rise of £2.5 billion since last year. The forthcoming months will...
Government plans to ensure that workers don't have to take Bank Holidays as part of their annual leave will see the UK start to catch up with its European counterparts in terms of holiday provision. Currently up to two million workers in the UK hav...
Employers, the leasing industry, professional advisers and many government departments including the DTI, were taken by surprise when withdrawal of the tax relief on computers supplied to employees was announced in the recent Budget. Numerous re...
After nine years pursuing her claim against her employer, Michelle Alabaster walked away with an award of just £204.53. However, the impact of the decisions of the ECJ, and now the Court of Appeal in the maternity pay case of Ala...
With increasing numbers of working parents comes a sharper focus on employer support for childcare arrangements. On 6 April 2005, the Government is to introduce new tax incentives in relation to childcare arrangements which are intended t...
Background There have been two key documents published which clarify the impact that Brexit will have on the UK takeovers regime. The draft Takeovers (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (Takeovers Regulations) essentially remove all refere...
Background The new Prospectus Regulation came into force on 20 July 2017 and is similar to the current Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC) but there are some relaxations to the regime which will be helpful to traded companies and whilst the majority o...
Introduction New rules in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Conduct of Business Sourcebook (COBS) took effect on 1 July 2018, which will result in changes to the timing and events in the UK equity IPO process. The new rules were publishe...
“Not a Dirty Word”: ESMA revisits the impact of its Opinion on delegation for UK managers if there is a “hard” Brexit In the wake of the draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, a speech by Steven Maijoor, th...
On 19 March 2018, a draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU was published. The Agreement’s objective is to set out the arrangements for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. Amongst these arrangements are the transitional provi...
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Stock Exchange”) is conducting further public consultation on the listing of companies from emerging and innovative sectors. The consultation paper published on 23 February 2018 (the &l...
Earlier this year, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (the “Stock Exchange”) published a consultation paper on The Review of the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) and Changes to the GEM and Main Board Listing Rules1 (the "Consultation Paper") ...
Introduciton On 5 December 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published its proposals for a revised UK Corporate Governance Code. The Code is shorter, building on the FRC’s...
The Securities and Futures Commission (the “SFC”) and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Stock Exchange”) issued a joint consultation paper on proposed enhancements to the Stock Exchange’s decision-making and...