It's the final countdown to the new Consumer Duty. After what feels like a lifetime of consultations, responses and commentary on the FCAs new Consumer Duty, the final countdown is upon us. With just over 5 months to go before the Consumer Duty comes into force, the big question is.. ...
The number of knife offences is going down but are still higher than at the start of the pandemic. Will the new Sentencing Guidelines for sales of knives to those younger than 18 (which come into effect on 1 April 2023) reduce the number further? Certainly, that would appear to be the intention of the Guidelines which significantly increase the potential consequences for retailers who break the law ...
February 16, 2023 By: Kathryn B. Fox and Charles Whitman Once again, California employers can require workers to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Viking River Cruises v. Moriana and in a reversal of its own prior decision, a divided three-judge Ninth Circuit panel found that AB 51 is preempted by federal law. Chamber of Commerce of the U.S., et al. v. Bonta, et al., No. 20-15291 (9th Cir. Feb. 15, 2023) ...
The Massachusetts Superior Court recently punished litigants for failing to preserve emails and text messages even though litigation did not appear likely when those materials were lost or destroyed. In JFF Cecilia LLC, et al. v. Weiner Ventures, LLC, et al., the trial and appellate courts clarified the rules applicable to spoliation and provided a reminder of the harsh consequences of losing or destroying evidence ...
In some ways, the 2023 proxy season might be met with a sigh of relief as some extraneous factors impacting United States capital markets—such as the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict—have stabilized in terms of their increased effect. In that same vein, some changes that may have once been viewed as “trends” in disclosure are very much here to stay ...
Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group is pleased to present the False Claims Act: 2022 Year in Review, our annual review of significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases, developments and trends. In 2022, the government continued to utilize the False Claims Act as its primary tool to combat fraud. Though the government’s recoveries at $2 ...
Blowing a whistle remains the most effective means of being heard above the crowd and drawing attention to an issue. Speaking up can help charities to do their work even better. The relevance of whistleblowing to charities A private member’s bill is wending its way through Parliament at the moment, looking to establish an Office of the Whistleblower ...
The planning system has a key role to play in both facilitating and legislating for environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. In the final instalment of Shoosmiths’ planning video series, legal director Sam Grange and associate Eram Watson examine how the real estate industry and planning system is incorporating ESG ...
The recently published project of the National Development Plan (“PND”) 2022-2026 “Colombia World Power of Life” embodies the objectives, goals and priorities of the National Government for the next four years. In the PND, the National Government introduces rules or regulations that would make it easier to achieve the objectives pursued ...
Is Tesco exploiting Lidl’s reputation as a discount or ‘value’ supermarket? This is what Lidl are alleging in the most recent supermarket trademark dispute. The question being put before the Court is essentially whether Tesco’s ‘Clubcard Prices’ logo infringes on Lidl’s brand logo, as both appear as text in a yellow circle on a blue background ...
An analyst estimates that the market value in 2023 for digital advertising will be US$701 billion. The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a legislative competition law 'key' to 'unlocking' the big-data relating to digital advertising held in the ‘safe’ owned by BigTech. Advertising agencies are potentially one class of beneficiary (see link for article - The Digital Markets Act - Strategy reboot for online advertising) ...
CyWee Grp. Ltd. v. Google LLC, Appeal No. 20-1565 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 8, 2023) In its only precedential patent case this week, the Federal Circuit addressed last gasp efforts by CyWee to salvage its IPR losses to Google. The arguments, residual Appointments Clause arguments following Supreme Court and Federal Circuit opinions in Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, were rejected by the Court, which affirmed. In June 2018, Google filed petitions for IPR. The Board instituted the IPRs ...
February 13, 2023 By: Melissa Richards Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris announced on February 1, 2023 that the New York State Department of Financial Services has adopted a final regulation?relating to early disclosure requirements on commercial financing offers equal to or less than $2,500,000, pursuant to sections 801 to 811 of the New York Financial Services Law (the “Commercial Finance Disclosure Law” or “CFDL”) ...
Introduction In recent times, the Court has been asked to hear cases where a General Partner ("GP") has failed to discharge its duties in relation to the affairs of an ELP. Without the co-operation of the GP, Limited Partners are often left bereft of information relating to assets of the ELP. They cannot properly realize their investments under the ELP and, even if they can, there is a spectre of doubt over whether the distributions represent their full entitlement in the assets of the ELP ...
The Supreme Court has this week (8 February 2023) handed down a judgment considering whether landlords have management discretion to vary service charge percentages in residential leases. S.27A(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (the Act) gives the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) the ability on application to make various decisions about service charges in residential dwellings, including whether it is payable or not ...
February 9, 2023 By: Michael Flynn According to a Chicago federal district court, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s loan discrimination provisions to not extend to alleged discrimination against prospective applicants. Relying on the express language of the ECOA statute, this ruling rejected a decades-old Regulation B rule that stated that ECOA did apply to conduct toward prospective applicants ...
Summary Main dispute resolution methods Court litigation Limitation periods Court structure Rights of audience Rights of audience/requirements Foreign lawyers Fees and funding Funding Insurance Court proceedings Confidentiality Pre-action conduct Main stages Starting proceedings Notice to the defendant and defence Subsequent stages Interim remedies Strike out Summary judgment Other circumstances Availability and grounds Prior not
On 23 December 2022, the Brussels Court of Appeal (“Market Court”) rejected Carrefour Belgium’s application for the suspension of the Belgian Competition Authority’s (“BCA”) decision of 9 November 2022 authorising the concentration between Intermarché AB (“ITM”) and Mestdagh ...
Underpinning the litigation anticipated to follow the COVID-19 Inquiry is the feeling that it is still too early for claims on key matters to be issued. A recent theme of claimant firms has been to agree deadlines with counterparties where limitation issues arise, or to put counterparties on notice of claims but wait for evidence to be given to the Inquiry and any findings before taking claims forward ...
The Register of Controlled Interests in Land (RCI) opened in Scotland on 1 April 2022. As we reported last year, the main aim of the RCI Regulations[1] is to increase public transparency around individuals who have significant control over decision-making in relation to land or a registrable lease, but crucially who do not appear on the Land Register or Sasine Register ...
As an employer, how do you support your employees who are going through a divorce or separation? Lots of employers (including household names such as Asda, Tesco and Unilever) are working with Positive Parenting Alliance (PPA) to ensure that they have more family-friendly employee policies in place for employees going through divorce or separation ...
The Financial Market Commission ("CMF"), as part of the implementation process of Law No. 21,521 ("Fintech Law"), on February 3, 2023 published General Rule No. 493 ("NCG 493"), which establishes the procedure and requirements to apply for registration in the Registry of Financial Service Providers (Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros, the "Registry"), created by the Fintech Law ...
