The Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal decision and found in favour of the ratepayer in this much-anticipated business rates case involving the rateability of a property which was undergoing substantial renovation. The ratepayer submit...
Background Since coming into force in 2013, the EU Timber Regulation 995/2010 (“Timber Regulation”) has placed a due diligence obligation on businesses, requiring systems to be put in place to minimise the possibility that illegally harv...
The European Commission has launched three investigations into suspected breach of the competition rules by companies in the consumer electronics, videogames and hotel sectors. The consumer electronics and videogames probes come out of the Com...
On 29 September 2016, the French Competition Authority (l’Autorité de la concurrence - the “Autorité”) imposed a fine of EUR 2.4 million on 37 model agencies and their main trade association, the SYNAM, in relation to...
The last two years have brought challenging times for ratepayers and there is little respite on the horizon. With the 2017 Revaluation looming, rateable values are likely to increase substantially throughout large swathes of the country. Together wi...
The Issue Typically, Outsourcing Projects take a long time to procure and deliver. This can be bad news for both customer and supplier Often, there is mismatch between what a customer thought that it was buying and what is ultimately delivered. Ofte...
On 11 May 2016 the Commission blocked an acquisition of Teléfonica UK’s O2 by Hutchison 3G UK’s Three, casting doubt on the acceptability of ‘four to three’ mergers in the mobile sector. The Commission expressed concer...
Selective Distribution – Some recent developments in the adidas case: when can sales via online platforms be restricted? On 18 November 2015, the Autorité de la concurrence (the “French Competition Authority” or “...
The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) publishes its ruling (the “Ruling”) on Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner (the “Case”) The Ruling in summary This morning (6 October 2015)...
Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) publishes his opinion (the “Opinion”) questioning the validity of Safe Harbor The Opinion in summary On 23 September 2015 Advocate General (“AG&rdq...
On 17 September 2015, the House of Lords EU Internal Market Sub-Committee (the Committee) launched an inquiry into the regulation of online platforms in the EU. The Committee intends to gather evidence on the benefits and problems online platforms...
On 9 September 2015, in his first State of the Union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for a review of the power wielded over food markets by groups of retailers and the “need to break some retail oligopolies&rd...
On 9 September 2015, in his first State of the Union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for a review of the power wielded over food markets by groups of retailers and the “need to break some retail oligopolies&rd...
The UK’s new Consumer Rights Act ( the “CRA” ) becomes effective on the 1st October 2015. As we have previously mentioned whilst this consolidates existing UK consumer law it also brings in some significant changes to the laws appl...
We are delighted to be sponsoring this years World Retail Congress taking place on 8 10 September in Rome. The theme to this years Congress is Transformation today, tomorrow and beyond, key to which for many retailers is international expansio...
R (on the application of Tesco Stores Limited) v Forest of Dean District Council and (1) JD Norman Lydney Limited (2) Asda Stores Limited (3) Windmill Limited (4) MMC Land & Regeneration Limited1 The Court of Appeal, upholding a decision of the ...
It has been reported that the European Commission (the “Commission”) is asking retailers to detail the difficulties they face while trying to sell their products online, as part of the lengthy questionnaires sent to the retailers followi...
On 31 March 2015, the German Federal Cartel Office (“Bundeskartellamt”, BKartA) announced that it has blocked the proposed takeover of approximately 450 Kaiser’s Tengelmann supermarket branches by EDEKA, the leading German food ret...
New rules in the FCA’s policy statement on Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) insurance (PS15/13) are about to change the way GAP insurance sold alongside the sale of a motor vehicle (add-on GAP Insurance) is sold to both consumers and commerci...
Introduction On 6 May the European Commission (the Commission) announced the launch of a competition law inquiry into the e-commerce sector, where it is believed that companies who engage in selling via the internet may be employing methods...
The protection of trade secrets has been on the European legislator’s agenda since 2011. It was felt that the lack of harmonisation in this field is very disadvantageous for cross-border innovation in Europe. After the initial report requested...
This month Visa Europe announced its expansion of V.me, a digital wallet service which will be available to the majority of internet shoppers in the UK before the end of 2015. V.me launched in 2013 following a surge in the use of smartphones and tab...
The Preparatory Committee for the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) has published a consultation document providing the proposed fee structure of the UPC, a table of court fees, and details of the ceilings for recoverable costs. The consultat...
The UK is changing the way in which it taxes share options and share awards held by employees who move between countries. Some employees will gain and some employees will lose. As an employer, if you have employees on assignment from overseas or you...
Competition Law E-Briefing: Fashion sector competition probe On Tuesday 24 March 2015, the UKs competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA), opened an investigation into suspected anti-competitive arrangements in the UK ...
The new product safety and market surveillance package of the European Commission The German Product Safety Act not only contains regulations on the safety of consumer products, product monitoring as well as on product warnings and recalls. It also ...
3D printing is becoming an increasingly versatile and commercially attractive tool. The technology has many applications beyond its roots in prototyping and it is being used to create products such as clothes, cars, musical instruments and even huma...
The security of personal information, including customer payment card data and related details, is integral to the functioning of retailers with an online offering, and there are serious consequences in the event of security breaches. Penalties...
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court recently considered whether a dividend distributed by a Swiss company that participated in a zero balancing financing arrangement had been distributed lawfully. The case refers back to 2001 when Swisscargo AG distribu...
The importance of the internet and the role that e-commerce plays in a company’s business have increased significantly over the past few years with many successful companies operating predominantly, some even exclusively, from online platforms...
On Thursday 12 February Eversheds hosted its annual Retail conference to discuss and debate key topics and issues impacting the sector. Keynote speech, Mike Ahanchian, BRC - The changing face of Retail The Retail conference was kicked off by M...
A recent decision concerning ownership of copyright has served as a stark reminder to businesses to ensure they consider and clearly capture ownership of intellectual property at the outset when commissioning works. The case concerned rights in the ...
Brand protection is a key issue for retailers. As brands continue to increase their presence online a key aspect is the protection of brands in domain names. Until fairly recently, the number of generic top level domains (“gTLDs&rdqu...
The Prime Minister announced on 18 April that a General Election will be held on Thursday 8 June. Parliament will be dissolved on 3 May and we wait with interest to see what planned legislation will survive the trauma of the current Parliament&rsqu...
A commitment to reduce public sector termination packages has seen the Government explore various proposals for reform in recent years; from draft regulations seeking recovery of termination payments, to a financial cap upon the amount of any indivi...
Closing a loophole? One of the key features, and one of the most contentious provisions, of the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (the Bill) is the new power it will grant the Charity Commission (the Commission) to issue of...
On the 5th October the Chancellor George Osborne, set out the Government's plans to devolve powers from Whitehall to local areas in a bid to stimulate economic growth. The initiative was heralded as the “biggest transfer of power to local gove...
Introduction The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (“the Bill”) is currently before Parliament. The Bill is relatively short and deals with two areas in particular: i) the powers of charities to make social investmen...
Introduction The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (“the Bill”) is currently before Parliament. The Bill is relatively short and deals with two areas in particular: i) the powers of charities to make social investmen...
The Government has reported to have saved some £26 million by "curbing" the activities of union representatives in the civil service. As part of the Government's proposed package of measures to take this further the draft Trade Union Bill (int...
In R (on the application of Diocese of Menevia and others) v Swansea City and County Council1 (“the Council”), the Administrative Court was required to consider whether a change in policy made by the Council in respect of school transpor...
Supreme Court reinforces the need to interpret clauses by the words used and their "natural meaning" On 10 June 2015, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of Arnold v Britton and others [2015] UKSC 36, which concerned the interpretatio...
Remember to Comply with the Health & Safety Executive Guidance Introduction The High Court (Queen's Bench Division) recently handed down judgment in the case of X v Northampton BC. The judgment is a reminder that a failure to comply with guidanc...
Although the "Mystery Shopper" has been around since February 2011, with the release of the Public Procurement Note 09/15 ("PPN 09/15") on 1 June 2015, we can expect to see a rise in the number of procurement investigations. PPN 09/15 explains the n...
Key Principles The public law duty to consult is one aspect of the principle that public authorities should exercise fairness in the exercise of their functions. Where the duty to consult is imposed by statute, then the procedure to be adopted is al...
Background The Government’s latest proposal in reforming the English schooling system was laid before Parliament last week in the form of the Education and Adoption Bill 2015-16 (“the Bill”). The Bill sets out provisions to conver...
With the dust settling after the recent General Election, it is possible to better speculate as to the likely direction of travel of the new Conservative government. The new administration has a slim majority, therefore, there still may be an elemen...
On 4 February 2015, the government launched a consultation on draft regulations implementing the cap on care costs contained in the Care Act 2014. The consultation also sought views on the need for new appeals system in relation to local authorities...
Another year, another budget. So what have we learnt from the contents of the infamous red brief case? Here are some of the highlights for the local government community. George...
The Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment)(Governance) Regulations 2015 were laid before Parliament on 28 January 2015. Issued under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, these...