Same sex couples will have the right to marry in England and Wales from 29 March 2014. Generally, same sex marriages will be treated in the same way as opposite sex marriages. However, in occupational pension schemes, surviving same sex spouses need only be treated in the same way as surviving civil partners and not as opposite sex spouses ...
There are many famous cases where trademarks and passing off come into contact with unofficial merchandising and the right holder has been unsuccessful. They range from the fictional character Tarzan, to the rock band Linkin Park, to Diana Princess of Wales. There is no such thing as a matter of UK law as a free standing general right by a famous person (or anyone else) to control the reproduction of their image ...
Misrepresentations and unfounded assertions of fact made to a party during pre-contractual negotiations can come back to bite you if they induce that party to enter into the contract. The Supreme Court case has emphasised that misrepresentations made to a non-contracting party can also result in liability for the party that made the misrepresentation ...
Unlike in federal court, it is unclear in Florida state courts when the duty to preserve evidence arises. Ostensibly, under Florida law, there is no legal duty to preserve evidence until a discovery request is made. While there is no doubt that a party can be sanctioned for failing to preserve evidence after it has a duty to do so, several Florida courts have sanctioned parties for failing to preserve evidence even when there was no such duty under Florida law ...
Every year, several judgments are rendered in penal law cases involving occupational health and safety issues. However, judgments in an occupational health and safety context resulting from the laying of criminal negligence charges are more rare. While the sections of the Criminal Code1 which facilitate the filing of criminal negligence charges are now ten years old2, criminal negligence convictions in Quebec based on breaches of section 217 ...
The recent amendments to the VAT legislation introduced by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, No 31 of 2013, gives effect to government’s proposal that all foreign businesses supplying e-books, e-music and other digital goods and services in South Africa be required to register as South African value-added tax (“VAT”) vendors ...
Reform Scotland, the Edinburgh-based think tank, has proposed a wholesale reform of the UK public and private sector pension system. In its paper The Pension Guarantee, published on 27 February and available in full here, it identifies a number of issues with the current system and sets out recommendations for a possible solution ...
Last year, we reported on the Employment Tribunal’s decision in Walker v Innospec Limited (ET 2411316/2011) that a pension scheme’s failure to provide survivor’s benefits for civil partners equal to those provided for spouses was unlawful discrimination ...
The Government has announced that the right to request flexible working will extend to all employees from 30 June 2014. At the moment, only employees who have children under 17 (18 if the child is disabled) or other caring duties are able to request flexible working under the statutory regime. The new provisions had been due to come into force in April but delays to the Children and Families Bill caused a set-back. The Bill is expected to receive Royal Assent in March ...
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recently published a Q&A document on the application of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. The Q&A includes information on a number of matters, including the application of the remuneration rules. A copy has been added to the resources page of our AIFMD microsite ...
On January 31, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in A.I. Enterprises Ltd. v. Bram Enterprises Ltd., 2014 SCC 12. This is an important commercial decision as it clarifies and narrows the scope of the tort of unlawful interference in economic relations. Canadian businesses will also welcome the Court's reference to commercial certainty as one of the principal reasons to clarify and limit the scope of this tort ...
When Shakespeare said we should kill all lawyers he was not referring to Magic Circle corporate or TMT partners, they had not been invented yet; and conveyancing and private client work were in their infancy. No, what he had in his sights were litigators and two hundred and fifty years later Dickens aimed his withering fire at the chancery lawyers in Bleak House ...
The HMRC policy on deduction of VAT on costs relating to investment management activities of an occupation pension scheme has altered with effect from 3 February 2014. The HMRC has confirmed that a pension scheme employer may be entitled to deduct VAT paid on services relating to the administration of its pension scheme and management of assets of the pension fund ...
On February 5, 2014, the Minister of Labour announced that as of May 1, 2014, the minimum wage will be increased by $0.20 an hour to $10.35 an hour. The hourly minimum wage of employees receiving tips will be increased to $8.90 an hour, which represents an increase of $0.15 an hour. Finally, the minimum wage payable to raspberry or strawberry pickers will continue to be established on a per kilogram picked basis. From May 1, 2014, this rate will be increased to $3 ...
In the recent case of Re Storm Funding Ltd, the High Court held that where contribution notices (CN) are issued to a number of companies following the failure to comply with a financial support direction:The contribution notices may in aggregate require payment of more than the actual employer debt in the scheme - a single contribution notice cannot be for more than that amount; and It follows that, under these multiple contribution notices, there scheme may recover more than t
Reprinted with permission from the February 7, 2014 issue of Corporate Counsel. © 2014 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. On Nov. 12, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari in Cariou v. Prince, leaving intact the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on copyright fair use in the context of appropriation art ...
Last December, the Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity unveiled the Quebec government's action plan with the goal of [translation] "correcting and restoring the situation of pension plans" ...
Many companies provide annual earnings guidance and quarterly updates to the analyst and investor communities. Guidance is also frequently updated during industry conferences and in nondeal roadshows. A failure to meet the market’s earnings expectations can negatively impact management’s credibility and, in turn, the price of the company’s common stock. The importance of earnings guidance is heightened during an equity offering when a company is actively soliciting investors ...
False labeling of products, fake or inferior materials and components used to make products, and the misappropriated use of another’s trademark are examples of how counterfeit goods and the theft of intellectual property are hurting consumers and companies. The world markets and global supply distribution chains provide opportunities for companies to grow and prosper. Sales through the Internet allow for products to be sold and sent to almost anywhere in the world ...
For the Portuguese tax authorities to grant the status of the non-habitual tax resident, it is necessary to meet the following conditions: The applicant cannot have been taxed as tax resident in Portugal in any of the five preceding years; The applicant must be considered as a tax resident in Portugal and residence in Portugal for tax purposes may be acquired in any year, among other situations, when the taxable person ...
"Should I stay or should I go?" may be the question an employee asks himself when he faces a difficult working environment and considers filing for constructive dismissal. Constructive dismissal is when an employer indirectly encourages an employee to resign by failing to comply with the employment contract or one sidedly changing the employment terms without the employee's consent ...
On January 16, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada1 affirmed the Court of Appeal of Québec2 judgment which authorized the class action brought against Vivendi Canada Inc. (“Vivendi”). This important decision confirms, among other things, that the rules for authorizing class actions in Quebec are more liberal than those in the common law provinces. THE FACTS Seagram Ltd. (“Seagram”), which was established in 1857, is a producer of wine and spirits ...
The Serbian Government has taken first steps of implementing a new court system with the passing of a new Law on Seats, Jurisdictions of Courts and Public Prosecution Offices (Official Gazette RS no. 101/2013), and amendments to the Law on Organisation of Courts (Official Gazette RS no. 116/2008, 104/2009, 101/2010, 31/2011, 78/2011 101/2011, 101/2013), which came into force on 1 January 2014 ...
The dispute resolution terms of engineering contracts can cause problems. An example is the recent case of Tubular Holdings (Pty) Ltd v DBT Technologies (Pty) Ltd, an unreported decision of South Gautend High Court. DBT Technologies - a subcontractor to Eskom in the Kusile Project 0 further contracted to Tubular Holdings in a deal worth some R 1.3 billion. Contract FIDIC's clause 20 governs the dispute resolution procedure. Clause 20 ...
