In R (on the application of Diocese of Menevia and others) v Swansea City and County Council1 (“the Council”), the Administrative Court was required to consider whether a change in policy made by the Council in respect of school transpor...

Introduction The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (“the Bill”) is currently before Parliament. The Bill is relatively short and deals with two areas in particular: i) the powers of charities to make social investmen...

Introduction The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (“the Bill”) is currently before Parliament. The Bill is relatively short and deals with two areas in particular: i) the powers of charities to make social investmen...

The Prime Minister announced on 18 April that a General Election will be held on Thursday 8 June. Parliament will be dissolved on 3 May and we wait with interest to see what planned legislation will survive the trauma of the current Parliament&rsqu...

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court recently considered whether a dividend distributed by a Swiss company that participated in a zero balancing financing arrangement had been distributed lawfully. The case refers back to 2001 when Swisscargo AG distribu...

The new product safety and market surveillance package of the European Commission The German Product Safety Act not only contains regulations on the safety of consumer products, product monitoring as well as on product warnings and recalls. It also ...

The UK is changing the way in which it taxes share options and share awards held by employees who move between countries. Some employees will gain and some employees will lose. As an employer, if you have employees on assignment from overseas or you...

On 31 March 2015, the German Federal Cartel Office (“Bundeskartellamt”, BKartA) announced that it has blocked the proposed takeover of approximately 450 Kaiser’s Tengelmann supermarket branches by EDEKA, the leading German food ret...

R (on the application of Tesco Stores Limited) v Forest of Dean District Council and (1) JD Norman Lydney Limited (2) Asda Stores Limited (3) Windmill Limited (4) MMC Land & Regeneration Limited1 The Court of Appeal, upholding a decision of the ...

The last two years have brought challenging times for ratepayers and there is little respite on the horizon. With the 2017 Revaluation looming, rateable values are likely to increase substantially throughout large swathes of the country. Together wi...

On 29 September 2016, the French Competition Authority (l’Autorité de la concurrence - the “Autorité”) imposed a fine of EUR 2.4 million on 37 model agencies and their main trade association, the SYNAM, in relation to...

The European Commission has launched three investigations into suspected breach of the competition rules by companies in the consumer electronics, videogames and hotel sectors.  The consumer electronics and videogames probes come out of the Com...

Introduction The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), the authority responsible for operating and enforcing the UK merger control regime, has published its updated Retail Mergers Commentary (“New Commentary”).1 The CMA ...

In July 2017, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published a detailed guidance paper (the “Guidance Paper”) on resale price maintenance (“RPM”) in the retail food sector. The purpose of the paper is to expl...

Anzen Limited & Another v Hermes One Limited In the case of Anzen Limited v Hermes One Limited [2016] UKPC 1, the Privy Council considered the use of permissive language in an arbitration clause.  Specifically, the Council considered what o...

Introduction It is always important to establish whether or not communications with the opposing party in a dispute are truly without prejudice (“WP”). If a communication is deemed not to be protected by WP privilege, a party exposes the...

On 6 April 2016, BIMCO and the International Group of Liquified Natural Gas (“LNG”) Importers (“GIIGNL”) jointly issued a standard form voyage charterparty designed for use in the LNG trade. Its introduction is said to be spe...

Following a consultation on the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the ‘Act’), the Government has confirmed that the way in which transport operators cap their liability to customers to compensate for delays or cancellations to services must be c...

Following a consultation on the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the ‘Act’), the Government has confirmed the way in which train operators cap their liability to customers to compensate for delays or cancellations to services must be consistent...

The Fourth Rail Package, which was introduced between June and December 2016, is a set of six items of EU legislation designed to increase the reliability and competitiveness of European railways in accordance with the EU’s liberalisation agen...

Background As part of the 2018 periodic review (“PR18”) of Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road (“ORR”) is reviewing the way in which the charges that operators pay to access the rail network are calculated. This review ...

Background The Office for Rail and Road (“ORR”) has opened a consultation on its proposals to introduce a voluntary binding Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) scheme for the resolution of consumer complaints in the rail s...

Background The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published draft guidance on its approach to assessing rail franchise awards under its merger control powers (the “Draft Guidance”)1. The guidance has been ...

Highways England are moving forward with the A303 Stonehenge project (A303) and the Lower Thames crossing (LTC) and will be starting their market and supply chain engagement in March 2018. These projects are two of the largest in Highway England's R...

Background Following the recommendations of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), the Department for Transport (“DfT”) ran a consultation seeking views on the introduction of a “public service obligation levy&r...

Background Periodic reviews are one of the principal mechanisms by which the Office of Rail and Road (“ORR”) holds Network Rail to account, and secures value for money for users and funders of the railway. The ORR’s periodic review...

Following close consultation with IFI's including the IFC, World Bank and EBRD, Tunisia has launched a review process to aid with the structuring and implementation of new PPP projects. Eversheds Sutherland was privileged to have been spec...

On 2 December 2019, the European Council agreed to update Regulation 1371/2007 (the “Regulation”) on rail passengers’ rights and obligations. The proposed amendments to the Regulation aim to strengthen the rights of passengers wher...

On 16 April 2019, a controversial 16-minute video containing footage of a what is believed to be a taxi journey taken by two Hong Kong celebrities, Andy Hui Chi-on and Jacqueline Wong, was published on the website of a local newspaper. This publicat...

The Facebook “Like” button and similar social media plugin technologies (Plugin) are now so commonplace that we perhaps don’t give them a second thought. Plugins provide an easy way for consumers to connect instantly with a preferr...

The Central Bank of Malaysia or Bank Negara Malaysia (‘BNM’) on 18 July 2019 issued another policy document which sets out its requirements to the nation’s Financial Institutions (‘FIs’) management of technology risk. W...

While fines recently imposed by the French and UK data protection supervisory authorities have been high, the supervisory authorities in Germany have so far imposed rather moderate penalties. This could now be changed by a new model for calculating ...

What do I need to know? On Thursday 19 December, Advocate General Saugmandsgaard Øe published his Opinion in Full Article