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Talk (Talk) is not cheap - record fine for data breach
06 October 2016Speak of making an entrance. Within a few weeks of her new appointment as the new UK Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham has issued TalkTalk with a £400,000 monetary penalty notice, the biggest fine yet awarded by the ICO.
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Shared parental leave and sex discrimination
06 October 2016The first case about the amounts paid to men and women on shared parental leave has been decided by an Employment Tribunal in Glasgow.
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Retail therapy: Commission publishes preliminary report on the e-commerce sector
19 September 2016The European Commission has released its long-anticipated preliminary report as part of the inquiry into e-commerce launched in May 2015. The report will be of interest to any businesses involved in e-commerce, and particularly those involved in online retail and distribution of digital content. This note focuses on the implications for those involved in the manufacture, distribution and retail of consumer goods.
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Naughty pics and controversial clicks - new guidance on hyperlinks to third party content
09 September 2016The Court of Justice of the European Union yesterday released its judgment in GS Media v Sanoma, which is the latest in a series of judgments on the legality of posting links to third party content on the internet.
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Baby steps…or a step too far?
08 September 2016The Women & Equalities Committee recently published its inquiry findings on workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination. This inquiry was launched after research last year by Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that discrimination towards pregnant women and new mothers had doubled since similar research was carried out in 2005.
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Immigration programmes for low-skilled labour: alternatives to freedom of movement
08 September 2016The UK relies on EU migrants for low-skilled labour. When the current immigration system was introduced in 2008, Tier 3 of the UK Points-Based System was earmarked for low-skilled immigration routes.
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Treat your (small) customer fairly or pay the price of more legislation?
01 September 2016Economic times are still pretty tough and likely to get tougher for small businesses up and down the country.
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Sherlock Holmes and the case of the vanishing director
30 August 2016Any good director knows that they have a duty to act in accordance with the company's articles of association. These dictate how directors should be appointed and removed, how shares are transferred and how key decisions should be made. Yet real life isn’t always that neat in practice. So what happens if a company discovers that it has invalidly appointed directors over the past twelve years? A recent judgment tells us that company articles can be amended by conduct – but warns that your articles can still come back to bite you in the end.
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Shiny talent, shady dealing: the case of Mauro Milanese v Leyton Orient Football Club
24 August 2016The fallout from senior level football terminations rarely extends to a trial in the High Court. Most disputes are settled or go to arbitration, which is a private process. Leyton Orient’s sacking of its Director of Football Mauro Milanese, however, prompted Milanese to sue the club for wrongful dismissal, and the case went to trial in March 2016. Judgment was given in May 2016.
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Calculating holiday pay new ET decision on voluntary overtime
23 August 2016Last year, we reported on a decision of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal that voluntary overtime might have to be included in the calculation of statutory holiday pay if it was a sufficiently permanent feature of remuneration.
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The London Olympic legacy dream was real – but four years on, is it still alive?
18 August 2016As we find ourselves enjoying both the carnival-style spectacle of Rio 2016 and the success of the British athletes at the Games, the build-up felt somewhat tainted by the media frenzy surrounding the clear health risks faced by the athletes and visitors (and the wider global community), the Russian doping scandal and the ongoing protesting on the streets of Rio.
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IPO waves through “should’ve” trade mark application
17 August 2016In a trade mark application that will raise a few bespectacled eyebrows, Specsavers has successfully managed get its application to register “should’ve” (as in, “should’ve gone to Specsavers”) past the examination stage at the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.
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Tax treatment of termination payments - the sting in the tail
16 August 2016In 2015, the Government launched a consultation to simplify the tax and national insurance (“NI”) treatment of termination payments. As previously reported, following that consultation the Government announced that it proposed to amend the rules with effect from 6 April 2018.
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Gender pay gap reporting - regulations delayed
16 August 2016There is to be a delay in publication of the final regulations on gender pay gap reporting, it has been confirmed by the Government Equalities Office (“GEO”).
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Without prejudice privilege: not a cloak for improper threats
16 August 2016Without prejudice privilege (“WP privilege”) allows parties to a dispute to try to settle their differences without their discussions being revealed to the court, and potentially to the public.
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Just a bit of banter - or endemic sexual harassment?
12 August 2016More than 52% of women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed at work, according to a new report by the Trades Union Congress in conjunction with the Everyday Sexism Project. Perhaps even more surprising than that headline figure is the fact that 79% of the women who said that they had experienced harassment did not inform their employer
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Brexit - Some thoughts on the impact on financial services
05 August 2016On 23 June 2016, 52% of voters in the UK referendum voted ‘Yes’ to the proposition that the UK should ‘leave the European Union’. The UK remains a member of the European Union (“EU”) until Brexit occurs, and therefore there will be no immediate change to the legal relationship the UK has with the EU and with individual EU Member States. Nonetheless, as the other articles in this briefing section indicate, the longer-term consequences of leaving the EU are potentially far reaching, although behind the already well-worn cliché of “Brexit means Brexit” lie many possibilities for the future relationship of the UK with the EU.
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Engineered for success or running out of fuel Immigration and the automotive industry
03 August 2016The manufacture of cars and commercial vehicles has increased enormously – more than 25% in the last 10 years. In the UK, car production has increased by over 5% between 2014 and 2015.
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Brexit and the points based immigration system
03 August 2016The UK’s potential withdrawal from the EU has placed our immigration systems under scrutiny. This article reviews the nature of our current system. We highlight aspects which could be improved and aspects which will have to change if EU nationals will be subject to the same Immigration Rules as non-EU nationals
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What is “MAR”? And what changes has it introduced for listed companies?
02 August 2016The EU Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014) (MAR) became directly applicable and effective in the UK from 3 July 2016, replacing the previous UK civil market abuse regime. While there is little change in the headline rules and terminology, the new regime has introduced more detailed regulation that listed companies and their advisers, directors, and others who discharge managerial responsibilities must now address.