There was a bit of a stir in the British press recently, with certain companies complaining that the major UK supermarket chains are now using get-ups for their own-label products that are so similar to the get-ups used by the major brand owners that consumer confusion is inevitable. An industry spokesman said this: ‘Our research shows that consumers are more likely to buy own-label products if they look like brands ...
The production and circulation of counterfeit products have been an economic and social problem for some time. Not only can such products pose a safety risk to consumers who use them, counterfeit products also lead to considerable lost income for legitimate businesses, decrease consumer confidence in the marketplace and are often used to finance organized crime. The retail value of counterfeit goods seized by the RCMP increased from $7.6 million in 2005 to $38 million in 2012 ...
A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision addressed a number of thorny issues relevant to commercial real estate disputes including whether a Plaintiff must mitigate its damages where it has made a claim for specific performance of a real estate contract. The decision has wide-ranging implications for commercial real estate developers ...
On 27 July 2012, the Minister of Industry Regulation No. 71/M-IND/PER/7/2012 on Oversight and Control of the Alcoholic Beverages Industry (“Regulation 71”) was issued. Alcohol beverages are now divided into the following 3 categories, namely Class A – 1% to 5% ethyl alcohol; Class B – 5% to 10% ethyl alcohol; and Class C – 20% to 55% ethyl alcohol. Regulation 71 requires all alcoholic beverage industrial entities to obtain a Business License called an IUI ...
The Directorate General of Customs and Excise issued Regulation No. 39/BC/2012 on Determining Special Relationships for Tobacco Products on 12 July 2012 in order to prevent manufacturers spreading their production among their subsidiaries to avoid moving up into a higher-duty paying class. A “special relationship” is established when the result of one of three tests is positive ...
The High Court has held that a tenant's short-term storage of documents using just 0.2% of a warehouse's floor space enabled the owner to successfully claim a period of rates relief once the property became vacant again. Under current legislation empty retail property enjoys 100% rates relief for a three month continuous period. Industrial and warehouse property enjoys the same relief for a six month continuous period ...
A Bill to amend the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (the Act) has been introduced into the Victorian Parliament. When the Bill becomes law, it will remove the requirement to notify the Small Business Commissioner of new leases under section 25 of the Act ...
A Ruling setting forth the Guidelines to Analyze and Verify Consumer Information and Advertising Material was published in the Federal Official Gazette on July 24, 2012 to become effective on August 23, 2012 ...
The usual restrictions on Sunday trading hours have been suspended during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games ...
LAVERY follows the evolution of consumer law closely, its specialized expertise in the fields of retailing and class actions has been confirmed many times by stakeholders in the milieu ...
Laverly follows the evolution of consumer law closely. Its specialized expertise in the fields of retailing and class actions has been confirmed many times by stakeholders in the milieu. Laverly makes it its duty to keep the business community informed about these matters by regularly publishing bulletins that deal with judicial and legislative developments that are likely to leave their mark and influence or even transform practices in the milieu ...
All fire insurance policies which cover a mortgaged immovable contain a clause dealing with the mortgage security (the “mortgage clause”). Financial institutions are familiar with this clause, which is considered as a separate contract from the insurance policy between the insurer and the mortgage creditor (the “creditor”) of the insured immovable ...
Government guidance that suggests parent companies are unlikely to be snared by anti-bribery legislation that catches a subsidiary could lull businesses into a false sense of security. While it is unlikely that a subsidiary or joint venture partner operating independently and caught by the Bribery Act would make its parent liable, there is other legislation ready to catch the owner ...
On December 15, 2011 was published in the Official Journal of the Federation the decree by which they renovated and added various articles of the Federal law on protection to the consumer, which entered into force the day after its publication ...
Kocián Šolc Balaštík kicked off the new year by helping complete a significant transaction: the sale of UG Air, an operator of duty free and fashion shops at the international airport in Prague, to Aelia Czech Republic s.r.o. KSB has provided legal advice to UNIMEX GROUP, a.s ...
Interest about the relevance of buyer power for competition has been growing in the last decades, as the markets of retail distribution were subject to a process of consolidation, if at different speed, in most European countries ...
The answer is that they were both the subject of two recent decisions which shed further light on the ability to register three-dimensional shapes as trade marks. On the face of it, a three dimensional shape may be registered as a trade mark provided it meets the usual criteria (distinctive, non-descriptive, capable of distinguishing goods of one business from another etc) ...
The High Court has ruled that contractual interest will form part of any agreed liability cap, but that statutory interest arising from the exercise of the court's discretion will not. In Markerstudy Insurance Co Ltd and others v Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd, the claimants alleged widespread breaches by the defendant of a number of agreements, causing the claimant to suffer loss of approximately £14m ...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has launched the new Privacy Notices Code of Practice. It is the most recent step in the ICO's continuing battle to ensure consumers are kept informed about how and why their personal data will be processed. Months of ICO research has revealed that over half of consumers do not understand what they are signing up to when they fill in online and paper forms ...
The Bill requires online retailers to take 'all reasonable steps' to avoid selling age-restricted products to those underage. It also requires annual advice from government to retailers setting out what constitutes 'all reasonable steps' ...
Customs has changed, with immediate effect, the way in which they deal with goods suspected of infringing brand owners' intellectual property rights. The changes are bad news for brand owners who now have to initiate court proceedings each and every time they wish Customs to seize a consignment of infringing goods ...
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that luxury brand owners can use their trade mark rights to prevent licensees selling goods to discount stores in breach of licence. Facts In 2000, Dior entered into a trade mark licence with Societe Industrielle Lingerie (SIL) for the manufacture and distribution of corseted clothing bearing the 'Christian Dior' trade mark ...
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) expressed her opinion in respect of a reference for a preliminary ruling from a German court. The main proceedings before the German court concern a German distance retailer who tried to charge the customer of a second-hand laptop for the eight months of use she had ...
Consumers currently spend €24bn every year in cross-border transactions, but this is only a fraction of the potential market.Many individuals are dissuaded from spending more by doubts over issues such as delivery timescales and after-sales service.EU forecasters expect online revenues within Member States to grow by 230% in the next five years, but only if the way is smoothed by the adoption of a new Consumer Rights Directive ...
