The first half of 2021 was marked by the highest level of commercial real estate transactions ever. The latest reports and statistics show that this trend has continued in the last six months, and the total transaction volume is likely to exceed NOK 130-150 billion. This surpasses the record year of 2015, when the total transaction volume for commercial real estate was NOK 129 billion. The pandemic caused increased use of home office ...
Record number of fines in 2021 At European level, a record number of fines have been issued during 2021 for violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since the GDPR entered into force in the EU on 25 May 2018, the supervisory authorities have imposed or notified fines in approx. 900 cases with an accumulated amount of approx. EUR 1.3 billion. As many as 500 of these cases are from 2021 with accumulated fines of as much as EUR 1 ...
The transaction pace and volume of 2021 was the silver lining of the Covid-19 overcast, keeping our clients and us busy and productive. Particularly the container ship market has been steaming hot, with rapidly increasing prices and high transaction volume. The bulker market has also seen the highest prices for the last decade, with correspondingly high transaction volume ...
The Home Office has announced changes to employer right to work checks, effective 6 April 2022 that all employers must be aware of. Carrying out right to work checks is an essential part of the recruitment process and it is important that employers are always up to date with any changes in this area. At present, employers must ask new recruits for physical evidence of their right to work in the UK, such as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) ...
With answer to ruling no. 839 of 21 December 2021 (the Ruling 839/2021), the Italian Tax Authorities (ITA) clarify that credit institutions established in the United Kingdom (UK) cannot benefit from the withholding tax exemption on interest and other proceeds from medium-long term loans provided for by Article 26, para. 5-bis, of Presidential Decree no. 600/1973 (the Decree 600/1973). https://www.gop.it/doc_pubblicazioni/935_qrpnmu9tzy_ita ...
Trends IT contracts An increasing number of clients have requested aid in purchasing either cloud service technology or offering cloud services to the market. We have seen a significant shift from on-premise solutions (i.e. local servers on customer premises) to public cloud and multi-tenant cloud solutions. Initially, customers pushed suppliers to offer cloud solutions. Now we see the opposite: suppliers pushing customers (who are not always ready for this) into the cloud ...
Experts from the Private Clients and Tax practices prepared the Russian chapter for the Thomson Reuters Practical Law Private Client Global Guide ...
In the last article for our Tricky Issues series, we consider the duty to make reasonable adjustments for employees who are deemed disabled under the Equality Act 2010 and share our top tips for employers looking to make such adjustments ...
In this article we look at Prevention of Future Death reports (“PFDs”) issued by Coroners in England and Wales – specifically those which have been made in relation to deaths arising from or connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. We assess the significance of the reports and how they may relate to the COVID-19 public inquiry examining the government’s response to the pandemic ...
There are numerous reasons why your pension might be in England and Wales while you are not. Perhaps you lived and worked in England or Wales then moved abroad, or you live overseas and did a stint of employment here. Whatever the situation, the majority of English and Welsh pension administrators neither recognise nor implement pension orders made in foreign courts following divorce ...
The New Homes Quality Code has been published and this article sets out some initial aspects for housebuilders to consider. After a consultation process lasting almost five years, the New Homes Quality Code (the Code) and Developer Guidance were published by the New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) on 17 December 2021. The Code will replace the current Consumer Code for Home Builders and will apply across the UK for the benefit of purchasers buying new build homes for their own occupation ...
With Scotland’s population growth stalling and with labour shortages in the UK at a record high, the demand for migrant workers at all skill levels is ever-increasing. Part 1 of this insight focuses on some of the current immigration routes for consideration by Scottish employers. Scotland is more reliant on migration than the rest of the UK to maintain population and help alleviate skills shortages ...
Part 1 of this insight focused some of the current immigration routes for consideration by Scottish employers to mitigate the Scottish labour shortage. Part 2 of this insight explores some of the new routes expected to be opened up by Spring 2022. Innovation visas Global Business Mobility Route In spring 2022, the Home office is due to launch the new Global Business Mobility route ...
We have in 2021 seen a remarkable (continued) recovery in the Norwegian financial market. This is also evident from the perspective of our banking and financing team. We have assisted our clients with a considerable number of new financings and refinancings, across most sectors. It has especially been hectic within the shipping, aviation and renewable energy sectors and we have seen a steep increase within acquisition financing ...
In the policy statement PS21/16 issued at the end of November 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set out its new approach to decision makers when issuing statutory notices ...
On 2nd December we hosted a webinar focused on social mobility and the role that in house legal functions can take to improve social mobility in the legal market. The panel of speakers comprised of Amanda Callear, senior legal counsel at Volkswagen Group and Tarn Kaur, associate at Shoosmiths as part of the ‘Conversations with Clients’ web-series and was hosted by Sebastian Price, partner at Shoosmiths ...
The core question of the doctor list case was whether online sharing of user reviews of health professionals on the Norwegian website «Legelisten.no» was necessary to ensure the freedom of expression and the public’s need for information. Furthermore, the Supreme Court had to decide whether those interests outweighed the privacy interests of the persons being reviewed ...
The case concerned the use of competitor’s brands in key word advertising on Google. Ikano Bank and two banks in the consumer loan market demanded that Bank Norwegian’s advertising on the Internet using the banks’ characteristics as paid keywords should be prohibited pursuant to the general clause of the Marketing Act. The principle character of the case was demonstrated by the support from Virke, The Federation of Norwegian Enterprise, in favor of the three claimants ...
We have been involved in several noteworthy trademark and unfair competition disputes throughout 2021. In particular, we prevailed before the Supreme Court in a highly cited unfair competition and trademark dispute between Bank Norwegian AS and the three competing banks Komplett Bank, Ikano Bank, and BRA-bank in the «Google Ads» matter ...
Following the publication of its guidance on environmental claims in September 2021, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) will start reviewing potentially misleading claims in January 2022. Enforcement action may follow if claims breach consumer law ...
With just seven days left until Christmas Day, there’s no denying we are well in the midst of the festive build up. But, for those holding out for a special ‘I Do’ surprise this year, Christmas might just come a bit earlier than expected. Predictions made previously by Bridebook [1] show that the weekend before Christmas is when most intending spouses do, in fact, pop the question ...
The court of appeal’s decision has been referred to by several law firms as an important clarification that such internal notes are indeed encompassed by privilege and not disclosable. We do of course agree that maintaining trust in the attorney-client privilege is important, but in this context, it was hardly a point that needed clarification ...
It may seem logical that personal injury damages awarded for someone’s on-going medical needs following a serious injury would be ring-fenced on a divorce. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. The leading authority on this point is Wagstaff v Wagstaff from 1992 in which, when referencing an attempt to ring-fence damages on divorce, it was stated that “the capital is not sacrosanct nor any part of it secured against the application of the other spouse” ...
The UK has introduced new legislation that, from 4 January 2022, will require transactions in certain specified sectors to be approved by the UK government before they can be completed. A new regime The UK is introducing a new regime which, from 4 January 2022, will require purchasers to obtain prior approval for transactions in certain specified sectors ...
Led by legal director of immigration, Rachel Harvey and principal associate, Sian Hoare, this webinar provided a post-Brexit recap, outlined general trends and looked at what is on the horizon for immigration law in 2022. Free movement in the UK for all EU citizens ended on 31 December 2020. As a result, there have been significant changes to the UK immigration rules and it looks likely that further changes are still to come in 2022 ...
