1. The legislative regime In conjunction with the VASP Act, the FSC also published Guidance on the Application for Registration of a Virtual Assets Service Provider (the “VASP Registration Guidance”) (available to view here), and the Virtual Assets Service Providers Guide to the Prevention of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing (available to view here) ...
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 ...
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 ...
Hydrogen is often touted as the future of green industry, heating and fuels. It certainly has the capability to be just that, but there are many hurdles along the way to be overcome. In truth, while there are many methods to produce hydrogen, only four could potentially reach carbon zero ...
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 ...
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 ...
The exponentially rising hydrogen trend attracted not only hydrogen veterans to the World Hydrogen Congress in Rotterdam, but also the fossil fuel industry. Big oil giants, such as Shell and Total Energies, were major sponsors of the event and eagerly presented their new green ambitions on the showroom and the stage ...
Our support of the UK’s first official Hydrogen Week continues this week, bringing together stakeholders across the UK to celebrate and promote the role of hydrogen in reaching net zero (NZ). Michael Bennett, construction legal director at Shoosmiths, explores the topic of hydrogen and its current journey to achieving net zero. The number that has been front and centre of every environmental conference is 1.5C ...
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 ...
Why is green hydrogen important and what is its role in energy transition? The UK’s first official Hydrogen Week takes centre stage this week, bringing together stakeholders across the UK to celebrate and promote the role of hydrogen in reaching net zero (NZ) ...
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”) ...
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 ...
Introduction Mdeon, the legally recognised Belgian ethical platform for healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical industry, announced several new ethics rules applying from 1 January 2023. The present blog post discusses their practical importance for the broader healthcare community, and particularly (i) several new ethic rules in light of the ascendant trend of virtual and hybrid scientific events, and (ii) new maximum hospitality amounts that can be offered to healthcare professionals ...
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
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 ...
With the impact of climate change increasingly evident, it is no wonder that many consumers are endeavouring to make more environmentally conscious decisions in their day-to-day lives. Consumers’ focus to become more environmentally friendly often centralises around changes to their purchases of small, everyday goods such as food, toiletries and other household essentials ...
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 ...
In re: Google LLC, Appeal No. 2023-101 (Fed. Cir. 2023) In the Federal Circuit’s only precedential patent opinion this week, the Court granted mandamus reversing yet another decision by Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright refusing to transfer a patent case out of his court, which (like several of Judge Albright’s prior decisions) denied transfer to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ...
Pensions analysis: The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has issued its levy rules and associated guidance and appendices for the 2023–24 levy year. Suzanne Burrell, Partner at Shoosmiths, examines the latest rules and guidance, the changes made since last year, the implications for pension schemes and what happens next. What is the background to the PPF’s consultation on the 2023/24 levy rules? The PPF’s consultation ran during the autumn of 2022 ...
