In this case, the Court of Appeal provided a long awaited decision answering whether a charterer’s failure to pay an instalment of hire punctually is a breach of condition under a time charterparty thus enabling the shipowner to terminate the ...

As is common practice now, ING Bank (“ING”) filed a number of cases asserting rights to amounts due and payable to O.W Bunker & Trading A/S (“O.W Bunker) for the provision of bunkers of fuel oil to vessels.  These cases in...

It has always been imperative that a claimant keeps at the forefront of its mind that time is ticking and that any claim it wishes to make must be brought in time. The respective time limit may be set out in statute, such as the Limitation Acts or o...

What is the purpose of the Consultation? The Office of Rail and Road (the “ORR”) is engaged in the 2018 regulatory review of Network Rail, known as the 2018 Periodic Review or “PR18”. PR18 will determine what Network Rail mus...

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...

Executive Summary The European Commission has consulted on an implementing regulation which will provide additional detail for procedures and criteria to be followed by service facility operators in order to satisfy their obligations under Directive...

Background The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published draft guidance on its approach to assessing rail franchise awards under its merger control powers (the “Draft Guidance”)1.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

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a multi-trillion Chinese led initiative to strengthen trade routes and related infrastructure across over 150 countries worldwide. The initiative covers over 60% of the world’s population in terms of ...

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...

Intro / Summary The Supreme Court has refused to grant Emirates permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision in the joint case of Gahan v Emirates and Buckley and ors v Emirates meaning the Court of Appeal’s decision to award comp...

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 On 16 October 2019 the Department for Transport (“DfT”) issued its “Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline Update” for Autumn 2019 (the “Enhancements Pipeline Update”). A copy of the Enhancements Pipeline U...

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...

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published a set of guidelines (in draft) for public consultation. These will be absolutely key to providers of online services, such as social media, e-commerce, internet search engines, communication an...

Lorna Doggett examines what has and hasn’t been working since the GDPR’s introduction last May. To read the full article click here > This article was published in the April 2019 edition of Intellectual Property Magazine, and is repro...

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The ICO has launched a public consultation on its new draft data sharing code of practice. The consultation period ends on 9 September 2019. It is an update of the previous code, to align it with GDPR so as to address transparency, lawful bases for ...

What you need to know UK regulatory guidance has been updated to the effect that the timescale for responding to individuals’ requests (including subject access requests) is one calendar month from the day of receipt of the ...

What you need to know UK regulatory guidance has been updated to explain what ‘manifestly unfounded’ and ‘excessive’ means in relation to the individual rights of data subjects under GDPR. This includes but is not limited to ...

The Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) issued guidance on data sharing in the public sector. The DPC noted its support for developing more efficient and customer-centric public services and sought to clarify the public sector obligations...

In its decision of 27. June 2019 (Ref. 6 U 6/19), the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main ruled that participation in a sweepstakes can be made dependent on participants giving their consent to receive future marketing via e-mail or calls. In...

This speed read follows on from our briefing in November 2018 in which we explained that the government had proposed a change in law to implement a ban specific to pensions related cold calling.  At that time it was estimated that 10.9 million ...

The Court in AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (17 January 2020) ordered injunctive relief against unknown persons accused of extorting ransom payments in the form of Bitcoin worth $950,000 from an insurance company, following a cyber-att...

As a general rule of data privacy protection in Hong Kong, personal data should be used only for the original purpose for which the data was collected, or a directly related purpose. One exception is where the data user obtains the consent from the ...

The Hong Kong Court has recently confirmed the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”)’s powers to seize, search and compel access to digital devices rejecting challenges to such powers based on privacy grounds. Data privacy is a...

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This week, the Government intends to set out its “road map” to “unlock the economy” and get people back to work. Therefore, in the not too distant future (hopefully sooner rather than later for the majority), businesses will ...

Case C-216/17, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato – Antiturst, Coopservice Soc. coop. arl In its judgment of 19 December 2018 (the &ldq...

The General Court of the European Union annulled on 14 February the European Commission’s decision of 11 January 2016 (Decision (EU) 2016/1699), in which it had found that Belgium’s excess profit exemption scheme was incompatible with EU...

Case C-260/17, Anodiki Services EPE1: interpreting the scope of the “employment contracts” exemption under EU procurement legislation Introduction The judgment relates to a request for a preliminary ruling made by Greece’s Council ...

On 20 March 2019 the Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’)  imposed a fine  of £25,000  on the guitar supplier Fender Musical Instruments Europe Limited (‘Fender Europe’) for failure to comply with a ...

On 4 June 2019 the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf ruled in favour of Booking.com’s revised “narrow” Most Favourite Nation (“MFN”) clause (Case No. VI-Kart 2/16 (V)). The reactions were predictable. German hote...

On 20 June 2019, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the UK Government’s decision to continue licensing exports of military equipment to Saudi Arabia for possible use in the conflict in Yemen was unlawful. The judgment comes amidst global concer...

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One of the most pondered questions following the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) has been - how will the EU Blocking Regulation fair in protecting the interests of EU businesses trading with ...

The FCA has published its interim report in relation to its market study into how general insurance firms charge their customers for home and motor insurance (Interim Report). The FCA has provisionally found that the market is not working well for ...

On 8 October 2019, the Government announced changes to the UK’s temporary tariff regime for certain products in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Under the proposals, which were first published on 13 March 2019 , the Government intended to introd...

We cannot discount the possibility that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union without any agreement on any transitional period and with nothing finalised on what the UK’s future trading relationship with the European Union will...

On 4 March 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) fined four pharmaceutical companies for breaching competition law through market sharing and the exchange of competitively sensitive information relating to the supply of nor...

In two recent judgments, both rendered on 16 October 2015 (which can be found here and here) the Supreme Court ruled on the sustainability of a legal construct often used by banks called the equity surplus-arrangement. A variant of the...

We are pleased to present to you our brochure which reviews the changes in the Polish law that we believe will have a major impact on business in Poland in 2017.

The case of So Sau Lai Connie v DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd [2017] HKEC 29 is a typical letter of credit fraud case. This case illustrates whether certain “red flags” may constitute discrepant presentation or a fraud indication. Background ...

Introduction Financial services firms’ corporate governance and risk cultures is a ‘hot’ topic with financial regulators globally. Regulators have noted that serious corporate governance and conduct failings of financial services f...

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Companies trade in an increasingly global market. Despite this, the process of taking security in support of financial obligations remains essentially a question of the national law in the country where the assets over which security is granted are ...

Companies trade in an increasingly global market. Despite this, the process of taking security in support of financial obligations remains essentially a question of the national law in the country where the assets over which security is granted are ...

The idea of shifting transactions into the digital space dates back to the beginnings of computer science. The development of blockchain technology has uncovered new possibilities for regulating contractual relationships. Parties to a contract now ...