October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to raise awareness about the impact of breast cancer and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure. The firm held an event last week at its offices with staff in order to raise awareness about breast cancer and to raise funds for the cause. The firm is once again making a contribution to the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation ...
On 13 October 2022, Shoosmiths hosted a webinar on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry (the ‘Inquiry’). The webinar took a closer look at the structure and progress of the Inquiry, alongside the commercial and legal considerations that any potential witness or party should be aware of, including the role of a Core Participant (‘CP’). The webinar was hosted by Paul Eccles (Partner) and included talks by Alex Friston (Associate) and Charles Arrand (Partner) ...
All contract legislation in Norway specifies time limits for filing a complaint. Put very simply, a complaint in this context is the process whereby a party to an agreement complains about a defect and asserts a claim within a defined time limit. Once the specified time limit has expired, the right to bring the claim will be lost. The logic behind the rules on complaints is that the parties to an agreement must be able to define the end point of, for example, a sale or delivery ...
The Government of Malta reaffirmed its commitment to establishing Malta as a go-to jurisdiction for start-ups in its Budget for 2023. During the budget speech that was delivered on 24th October 2022, the Minister for Finance and Employment, Hon. Clyde Caruana announced that a one-stop shop for start-ups is set to be launched within the “Start in Malta” programme currently run by the Malta Enterprise ...
Three bills are being read in Parliament proposing new insolvency-related legislation and amendments: The Pre-Insolvency Bill; The Insolvency Practitioners Bill; and The Commercial Code (Amendment) Bill ...
All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal working which is done by undertaking simple right to work checks before an employee commences employment. 1. Why do employers need to know what IDSPs are? All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal working which is done by undertaking simple right to work checks before an employee commences employment ...
A recent Supreme Court decision has clarified the position on how holiday pay for irregular workers on permanent contracts should be calculated. But practically, where does this leave employers and what options are available to them? Background Under the Working Time Regulations, workers are entitled to be paid a minimum of 5 ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has played an important role in shaping labour markets by accelerating the growth of digital labour platforms which have in turn brought a number of challenges ...
Please be informed that new Federal Law No. 332-FZ (“Law”) was passed on 14 July 2022 allowing the landlords to claim from the tenant the average monthly rent or to terminate the lease if the tenant's commercial activities are suspended. The Law establishes specific conditions under which the average rent could be claimed, imposes restrictions on landlord's right to terminate the lease agreement if foreign control over the lessee is terminated ...
The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations came into force last Friday, the 21st October 2022, implementing the Transparent and Predictable Workings Conditions Directive (2019/1152). The Regulations lay down minimum requirements on the working conditions applicable to every worker in the European Union who has an employment contract or relationship ...
We are pleased to issue our second edition of the Regulatory Compliance Quarterly Updates. These updates are intended to keep Maltese regulated entities informed of regulatory changes and developments taking place in the local financial services space ...
Loan facilities and bond loans usually include financial covenants, which are financial metrics the borrower/issuer need to comply with during the term of the financing agreement. The Norwegian market is dominated by maintenance covenants, which means the covenants must be complied with at all times. Over the course of a few months, geopolitical unrest, high inflation and prolonged supply chain issues have led central banks to increase interest rates and lenders to increase their risk margins ...
In the recent case of R v Andrewes [2022] UKSC 24, the Supreme Court considered whether stripping the Defendant of their earnings would be disproportionate when considering the financial benefit obtained by CV Fraud. This article takes us through the facts of the case and Lauren Bowkett, a Principal Associate in the Business Crime and Compliance team, comments on the recent Supreme Court Judgement ...
The European Council of the EU gave formal approval to the Digital Services Act (DSA) on 4 October 2022, which is the most significant update to the legal framework on digital services since the adoption of the E-Commerce Directive in 2000. The focus of the DSA is to improve user safety online by regulating online content, advertising and product sales ...
RENT UPDATE COEFFICIENT FOR 2023 Law no. 19/2022 was published in Diário da República (Official Journal) on 21 October 2022 and, among other measures, it establishes the rent update coefficient for the calendar year of 2023. During the next year, the annual update coefficient for rents of the several types of leases, both urban and rural, established in article 24 of Law no. 6/2006 of 27 February, which approved the New Urban Lease Regime (NRAU), will not apply ...
In another helpful judgment for defendant organisations handling large amounts of personal data, Driver v CPS provides guidance on the quantum of data breach claims where the claimant has suffered distress but not provided medical evidence. The court awarded £250 as the data breach was at "the lowest end of the spectrum", which may indicate where the de minimis threshold for such cases lies and is often a hotly contested point in data breach claims ...
It is generally accepted that hybrid working is here to stay, along with all the challenges that managing a remote workforce presents. Here we focus on how an employer can effectively manage absence when employees are working remotely. As we discussed in our previous article, The Future of Work: Performance management in a hybrid working world (shoosmiths.co ...
Investment Zones are a lot like Freeport tax sites, arguably with more benefits, so are they friend or foe to Freeports? Background Liz Truss pledged to boost growth with “full-fat” Freeports as part of her leadership campaign in July 2022 and it sounded like all systems were finally go for Freeports ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on Immigration in Scotland: How do the current rules help fill Scottish labour shortages? The event was hosted by Pavan Sumal and Samantha Mackie and a summary of key takeaways can be found below. General Overview Scotland is subject to the same immigration rules as the rest of the UK. Whilst this carries many benefits, it doesn’t recognise the fact that each of the home nations is unique and has different needs ...
Restrictions on the placement of High in Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) food in prominent locations (in store and online) are now in force with restrictions on volume price promotions delayed until October 2023. What is in force? We discussed the new measures on HFSS food including restrictions on volume offers and new rules on placement and promotion in our previous article ‘Further restrictions on HFSS (high in fat, salt or sugar) foods are coming’ ...
On 22 September 2022, the UK Government published the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (‘the Bill’). Under the Bill, all retained EU law will be revoked on 31 December 2023 (or at a later date prior to 23 June 2026 if a consensus to delay is reached) unless Members of Parliament take steps to codify it into UK law. The potential regulatory effect of the Bill is seismic ...
The Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-449/21Towercast rendered on 13 October is interesting reading in particular in the context of «killer acquisitions». The dispute in the main proceedings before Cour d’appel de Paris concerns the question as to a supplementary or «gap-closing» application of Article 102 TFEU in relation to the national rules on merger control ...
Today is World Menopause Day! Whilst it may feel like ‘just another day’, it is an important day for raising awareness of something that has, historically, not been on most people’s radars (other than those going thought it, of course) ...
With an ingrained focus on community, connectivity and sustainability, the build to rent (BTR) sector is helping to transform modern living habits in the UK. With the total number of BTR homes completed, under construction or in planning at Q2 2022 up 13% from 2021 to 237,000, and with regional cities growing at double the pace of London, the sector has a huge opportunity to act as a flagbearer for the ESG agenda ...
In the course of regular updates on Russian counter-sanctions measures, we would like to provide you with summarized information on: new Official Clarifications published[1] by the Ministry of Finance on October 14, 2022; and new Presidential Decree No. 737 published on October 15, 2022. The above have hugely updated the current counter-sanction FDI regime in Russia, in particular, new transactions requiring counter-sanctions approval were added (e.g ...
