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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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The EU plans to significantly ramp up liquefied natural gas purchases from the US and is willing to remove regulatory hurdles in order to make this happen, Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said on 11 September 2025 following a meeting with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright. During their Brussels meeting, the two energy leaders discussed tightening the squeeze on Russia by ensuring the EU meaningfully scales back Russian energy imports, with US shipments set to substitute for them. ‘ It is intolerable that Europe still buys gas, oil and nuclear fuel from Russia,’ Jørgensen told reporters at a press briefing. ‘ We must bring in more LNG from the US, and I am delighted the American administration backs this.’ Expanded LNG inflows, alongside oil and nuclear materials, are included in the EU– US trade agreement concluded in July 2025. The US is...
In this issue: EU fundamentals Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences Regulatory TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers EU fundamentals Commission President delivers 2025 State of the Union speech The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, set out the 2025 State of the Union in Strasbourg on 10 September 2025, underlining that Europe must remain cohesive and defend its principles, democracy and sovereignty amid a more hostile international landscape. She drew attention to pressures from worldwide climate and public health emergencies, rising living costs, and the conflict in Ukraine. The address urged Europe to assume greater responsibility for its own defence, security, technology and energy supply, and appealed for solidarity among Member States, EU...
Asociacion De Veciños As Conchas, Federacion De Consumidores Y Usuarios CECU 4019/2025 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling of the High Court of Justice of Galicia has tangible consequences for those working in administrative, environmental, and human rights practice. On substance, the judgment forges a firm connection between ecological degradation—most notably agricultural water pollution—and violations of core rights: life, health, private life, and the ability to access safe water. It broadens legal acknowledgement of environmental damage as a direct encroachment upon constitutionally safeguarded rights, creating a persuasive precedent for advisers supporting individuals and community groups suffering from contamination. On procedure, the court affirms that neighbourhood associations and consumer organisations may pursue fundamental rights actions, even when they are not the immediate victims but act for collective interests. This enlarges the room for group litigation, particularly in...
The referring court The Court of Justice ruled that the ‘informed user’ assessing whether a product produces a different overall impression from a protected design need not study the design to the tiniest detail where overlapping features are functional rather than aesthetic. After a complaint from Lego, Hungarian tax and customs authorities seized toy sets being imported by Pozitív Energiaforrás. A protracted back‑and‑forth then unfolded over whether the order should remain in place and also whether the rival products were infringing the rights of the Danish toy maker, ultimately prompting the Budapest High Court to seek some pointers from the Court of Justice......
According to the European Commission, EU farmers producing beef, poultry, sugar and other ‘sensitive’ agricultural products will benefit from protective measures—among them a safeguard tool and a contingency fund—to avert market upheaval linked to the EU‑ Mercosur accord. The EU‑ Mercosur Association Agreement, 25 years in preparation and hailed by EU officials as ‘historic’, will gradually phase down or scrap tariffs over the coming decade, ultimately forming a marketplace of 700 million people when fully implemented. In today’s unsettled geopolitical environment, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said diversifying supply chains and deepening cooperation with trusted allies, partners and friends is not a luxury but a necessity, at a press conference. He added that these agreements will anchor the EU’s economic presence in Latin America, a presence that has been in......
The Taxonomy Regulation ( EU) 2020/852 establishes a system for identifying which economic activities qualify as environmentally sustainable. It is applied by both financial and non-financial companies, including to support the labelling of investments as environmentally sustainable. The delegated regulation signals a major step in the European Union’s continued refinement of its sustainable finance framework. The Commission seeks to make the regime more practical and less onerous, while still meeting the EU’s climate and environmental ambitions. Through the delegated regulation, the proposed changes to the Taxonomy Regulation aim to lighten administrative demands for financial and non-financial companies, bolster the EU’s global competitiveness, and protect the Regulation’s core aims. For more information on the new delegated regulation, see: Commission adopts Delegated Act to simplify EU Taxonomy reporting rules, LNB News 08/07/2025 17 Background on the Taxonomy Regulation In force since 2020, with reporting...
In this issue: Banking and finance Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences TMT Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Banking and finance European Parliament publishes proposed amendments to shorten EU securities settlement cycle to T+1 The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs has unveiled draft changes to Regulation ( EU) No 909/2014, introducing a shorter settlement timetable for securities trades. Under the proposal, most transactions concluded on trading venues would settle on the next business day ( T+1) rather than the existing two-day cycle, with commencement targeted for 11 October 2027. The package carves out specified securities financing transactions and designates the European Securities and Markets Authority to supervise settlement efficiency throughout the transition. The reform seeks to lessen counterparty risk and harmonise EU markets with prevailing global practice. See: LNB News 03/09/2025 16......
From 2 August 2026, the EU’s landmark AI Act will require firms such as Open AI, Google and Meta to apply machine-readable labels to material produced by Chat GPT, Gemini and similar systems, indicating whether content is machine-generated or has been manipulated. The legislation also charges the European Commission with guiding the development of a voluntary code of practice to support the effective roll-out of this labelling duty. Early groundwork for the code has been laid through expert studies examining technical methods to mark content by type. Preparatory studies At a technical workshop on 4 September 2025, AI companies, experts and other stakeholders will be shown the preliminary findings from these studies. The text study was overseen by Giovanni Puccetti, associate professor at the University of Milan; the audio work was led by Xavier Serra and Martin Rocamore, professors at Barcelona’s University Pompeu Fabra; and the image and...
UPC Court of Appeal declines ECJ referral on costs deadline The UPC Court of Appeal has dismissed Expert e‑ Commerce Gmb H’s bid to involve the European Court of Justice in assessing whether the UPC’s time limits for claiming costs are excessively narrow. The application followed the German company’s failure to meet the cut-off to recover costs in proceedings against Seoul Viosys Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd. The appellate judges concluded they cannot request the European Court of Justice to interpret the UPC Agreement. According to the ruling, that framework “forms part of international law” and does not constitute an EU regulation, directive or act. The court added that the same position applies to its Rules of Procedure. A request for a preliminary ruling must address the interpretation or validity of EU law, rather than construing national rules or matters of......
In this issue: Competition and state aid Free movement, immigration and employment Financial services Environment IP TMT Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Competition and state aid Competition policy— Commission updates 2024–2029 timeline for competition policy reviews and reforms The Commission has issued a refreshed competition policy roadmap for 2024–2029, spanning antitrust, merger scrutiny, State aid, the DMA, and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation ( FSR). See News Analysis: EU Competition law—daily round-up (25/08/2025). State aid— Commission launches call for evidence on revision of rescue and restructuring State aid guidelines Adopted in July 2014, the guidelines were originally set to lapse on 31 December 2020; however, the Commission prolonged them by three years while running a ‘fitness check’ of the State aid framework, and then extended them again by two years to 31 December 2025. See News...
How can websites best preserve privacy in tracking users’ consent to targeted online advertising? A landmark Belgian court decision has triggered a rethink of how sites safeguard privacy while logging consent for targeted ads. Spurred by the Brussels Market Court’s May 2025 ruling against adtech trade body IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework ( TCF) — a consent tool broadly deployed across the EU (see here) — German university professor Max von Grafenstein, founder of legal tech venture Law & Innovation Technology, is designing a fresh mechanism to record and relay consent throughout the ad ecosystem. The IAB proceedings are under close observation because they grapple with fundamental questions about the boundaries of personal data and the identification of controllers. Hundreds of websites and advertisers depend on the TCF to satisfy EU data protection requirements when seeking permission to deliver...
In this dispute, Deity Shoes holds EU design rights covering several shoe models. It alleged that Mundorama Confort and Stay Design had infringed those rights. Mundorama Confort and Stay Design filed counterclaims seeking invalidity, asserting the contested designs derive from pre-existing designs appearing in catalogues of Deity Shoes’ suppliers, differing only marginally due to customisation of elements such as the sole, laces, or buckles—features steered by fashion trends. Accordingly, they argued the designs do not stem from any ‘genuine design activity’, ‘intellectual effort’ or innovation. The matter reached the Court of Justice via a preliminary reference from the Juzgado de lo Mercantil No 1 de Alicante ( Commercial Court No 1, Alicante, Spain). The AG distilled the referring court’s questions into two points: does an EU design require a ‘genuine design activity’ or ‘intellectual effort’? do fashion trends restrict the...
The draft report characterises algorithmic management as the deployment of automated tools—including those using artificial intelligence—to supervise, evaluate, or take decisions that impact workers and solo self‑employed individuals. It builds on a Commission study released in March 2025, which concluded that, although current EU rules, such as Regulation 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation ( EU GDPR), mitigate certain risks to workers arising from algorithmic management, other risks persist. That study further acknowledges that the AI Act does not confer dedicated rights on workers where AI is applied, a point flagged as problematic. The draft also attaches proposed wording for a new directive governing algorithmic management at work. The European Parliament has not, at this stage, given its approval to the draft report yet......
In this issue: Banking and finance Corporate Financial services Energy Environment IP TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Banking and finance SRB launches consultation on updated bank separability and transfer guidance The Single Resolution Board ( SRB) has opened a consultation on refreshed operational guidance for banks on separability and transferability within resolution planning. The revisions seek to improve the efficacy and efficiency of planning by bringing the guidance into line with the current resolvability self-assessment framework and the SRB’s wider crisis-preparedness stance. Notable updates include an annex dedicated to resolution testing and an updated framework for Transfer Playbooks, intended to fine-tune existing approaches without adding new deliverables. Feedback is invited by 22 October 2025. See: LNB News 14/08/2025 13. Corporate EESC publishes opinion to the EU's...
On 14 August 2025, the UPC Court of First Instance held that Dreame International ( Hong Kong) Ltd and Eurep Gmb H must not sell devices in Spain that could infringe Dyson Technology Ltd’s patent. Eurep is a German business that supports Dreame in EU product safety compliance efforts. The court found Eurep to be an authorised representative and ‘indispensable’ to Dreame’s distribution of electronics overall, including in Spain. This allowed Eurep to function as an ‘anchor defendant’, enabling the UPC to target Dreame with sanctions, the ruling stated. Although Spain is not a party to the UPC Agreement, the Hamburg local division nonetheless chose to impose an injunction spanning Spain, relying upon Spanish law for support. The court noted that Spanish patent law permits injunctions ‘against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe patent rights’. This holds ‘even if the...
Technological Aspects of Generative AI in the Context of Copyright The European Parliament’s Policy Department for Justice, Civil Liberties and Institutional Affairs has issued a briefing titled ‘ Technological Aspects of Generative AI in the Context of Copyright’. This technical note, presented in accessible terms, describes how Gen AI works via the idea of hypersurfaces. If that sounds baffling, the paper compares a hypersurface to a rubber sheet stretched across many dimensions, with each training point tugging slightly, producing a smooth yet intricate terrain that runs close to many original training data points. Gen AI is unlike traditional machine learning: rather than predicting a label or property from inputs (determinism), these models are trained to synthesise fresh outputs through probabilistic sampling across learnt distributions. This is not ‘human learning’ and does not amount to ‘understanding’. Instead, it is statistical...
Tradeinn Retail Services S. L. Case C‑76/24 What are the practical implications of this case? Under Article 10(3)(b) of Directive ( EU) 2015/2436, an unauthorised third party may not use a trade mark by offering or placing goods on the market, by holding stock for those ends under the sign, or by offering or providing services beneath it. The Court of Justice confirmed that storing goods bearing an infringing trade mark in one state constitutes an offence where the intention is to market those goods in the state in which the trade mark is registered. What was the background? PH owns two German trade marks, ED and a device, registered for, inter alia, ‘diving equipment, diving suits, diving gloves, diving masks and breathing apparatus for diving’. From Spain, Tradeinn Retail promoted diving accessories for sale on its website and via Amazon.de using PH’s trade marks. Items...
In this issue: Banking and finance Competition and state aid Financial services Energy Environment Life sciences Regulatory TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Banking and finance EBA publishes report on Sup Tech use in AML/ CTF supervision The European Banking Authority ( EBA) has issued a report evaluating how EU national competent authorities are deploying supervisory technology ( Sup Tech) in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism supervision. Drawing on a 2024 survey of NCAs and a 2025 workshop, the analysis supports rollout of the EU’s new AML/ CTF framework, including the establishment of the Anti- Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Authority to coordinate oversight at EU level. See: LNB News 13/08/2025 6. ECB publishes paper examining impact of ESG banking...
The Commission has unveiled a standard form that AI makers falling under the EU AI Act must use to set out the data fed into their systems. Yet the reach of one of its most contentious obligations is still not, as yet, defined. Under the EU AI Act, creators of general‑purpose models, including Open AI, Anthropic and Google, must release a ‘sufficiently detailed summary’ describing the training data that were used to train their models. What counts as ‘sufficiently detailed’ follows a compulsory template issued by the EU executive on 24 July 2025. Models are built on vast datasets, for which information is often scarce or incomplete in practice. The summary aims to help parties with a legitimate interest—such as data subjects and rights holders—assert their rights under EU law. But a fiercely disputed disclosure item in the...
In this issue: Competition and state aid Free movement, immigration and employment Financial services Environment Insurance and reinsurance Life sciences TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Competition and state aid State aid— Court of Justice rules on an Italian reference, declaring renewable energy State aid inadmissible. In Case C-514/23, Tiberis Holding, the Court considered questions from Italy on whether a national scheme encouraging electricity generation from renewable sources is compatible with the EU internal market. See News Analysis: EU Competition law—daily round-up (01/08/2025)... State aid— European Commission opens a call for evidence on technical updates to the ETS State aid guidelines. The Commission is seeking views on planned revisions to the Emissions Trading System State aid guidelines ( ETS Guidelines), with feedback invited until 5 September 2025. As...
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This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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