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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Considered a pioneering ruling, on 27 September 2024 the Court held that Laion — a non-profit assembling datasets for AI training, also for commercial ends — may invoke the text- and data-mining exception in Germany’s implementation of Directive ( EU) 2019/790 (the EU Copyright Directive) when scraping images protected by copyright. The central question between the parties was whether Laion, as defendant, could lawfully download and copy photographer Robert Kneschke’s protected image to build an AI training dataset. Laion releases a dataset for third parties to train their systems on, while it does not train any AI itself. It offers approximately 5.85 billion image-to-text pairs to AI image generators, a resource used for commercial activity. The proceedings were closely watched by developers of generative AI, as this is regarded as the first EU case to address the lawfulness of image scraping and later use...
In this issue: Key developments and materials New technologies Internet Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Telecommunications Lex Talk®TMT: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Key developments and materials Assimilated law procedures paused as part of UK– EU ‘reset’. The government has deferred commencement of section 6 of the Retained EU Law ( Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 as it works towards a UK– EU reset. As a result, the new court processes for assimilated law will not take effect on 1 October 2024 as previously planned. See: LNB News 30/09/2024 27 and LNB News 26/09/2024 2. Accordingly, the timetable shifts and the new procedural rules are postponed. New technologies DSIT confirms the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will be brought to...
Lenovo Group Ltd and others v Inter Digital Technology Corporation and others [2024] EWHC 596 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Practitioners and industry participants involved in negotiating SEP licences will note this ruling, as it tackles (i) the practical concerns that arise once a court-set FRAND licence expires, including issues after the term ends, and (ii) the new issue of whether the English courts—one of the very few court systems prepared to fix global FRAND terms—will state the terms of an ‘interim’ FRAND licence......
Key takeaways The CMA Guidance, derived from the Code, sets out detailed expectations for any environmental or sustainability claims by fashion brands about products or ranges, plus steps to achieve compliance. The emphasis is on giving enough information so claims are clear, specific, accurate, and supported by evidence. Businesses are encouraged to implement strong internal controls to ensure the accuracy of environmental claims in line with the Guidance. This means having suitable policies, routine staff training, and mechanisms to check product listings and supplier assertions. The Guidance precedes the CMA’s forthcoming enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( DMCCA 2024), which will permit financial penalties of up to 10% of a business’s global turnover for breaches of consumer protection law. The CMA has already contacted 17 fashion brands over concerns about their environmental claims, signalling active oversight and an...
In this issue: New technologies Internet Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New technologies The AI Safety Institute has confirmed the UK will convene a conference dedicated to putting into practice the Frontier AI Safety Commitments agreed at the AI Seoul Summit in May 2024. Scheduled for San Francisco on 21 and 22 November 2024, the gathering will unite AI developers, researchers and policy officials to examine the shaping of national AI safety frameworks, the next phase of AI safety evaluations, transparency, and approaches to defining risk thresholds. See: LNB News 19/09/2024 39. The United Nations AI Advisory Body has issued its final report, ‘ Governing AI for Humanity’, following worldwide consultations and an interim release in December 2023. The report stresses the necessity of global AI governance, urges the UN to establish an inclusive...
For years, the firms have sparred over who should foot the bill for data traffic. Matters escalated in May 2023 when a Cologne court held that their contract must be honoured, obliging Meta to pay Deutsche Telekom roughly €20m for 'data transport services'. It also requires Meta to cover future charges for direct interconnection. Meta has maintained it should fall under a no‑cost 'peering' arrangement and owe Deutsche Telekom nothing. The German operator counters that Meta previously delivered its traffic over paid, direct links into its network. According to Deutsche Telekom, Meta halted those payments during the coronavirus ( COVID‑19) pandemic. The company then brought legal action demanding settlement. After months of discussions following the judgment, Meta opted to send its data via a transit provider into the network instead of using the former direct path. The ruling confirmed obligations between them. Meta...
Introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high in fat, salt or sugar In its reply to the 2022 consultation, Introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high in fat, salt or sugar, the government reaffirmed commitment to tackling childhood obesity by introducing limits on TV and online promotion of 'less healthy' foods and drinks. In practice this refers to high fat, salt or sugar ( HFSS) products that fall within the 'less healthy' categories. These advertising controls have been taken forward through the Health and Care Act 2002, which received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022 and added new sections to the Communications Act 2003, including: A 9pm television watershed for HFSS products, applying to all TV programmes regardless of programming or typical audience age, and covering all on-demand programme services ( ODPS) under UK...
In this issue: New technologies Internet Data protection Media Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Telecommunications Technology sourcing Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New technologies The Government has tabled the Property ( Digital Assets etc) Bill, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed, to provide clear legal footing for digital holdings. If enacted, it would reshape the law in England and Wales so that cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and carbon credits are treated as personal property. At present, digital belongings are not definitively encompassed by English and Welsh property law. The Bill would introduce a third class of property, alongside ‘things in possession’ and ‘things in action’, enabling certain digital assets to carry personal property rights. See: LNB News 12/09/2024 68. The ICO has addressed Meta’s...
Background to the Dutch DPA’s investigation As is often the case, the AP’s scrutiny of Uber’s processing first arose following complaints from data subjects themselves. The French human rights organisation Ligue des droits de l'homme et du citoyen ( LDH) submitted two collective complaints in June 2020 and September 2021 respectively to the French DPA, the Commission Nationale de l' Informatique et des Libertés ( CNIL), on behalf of 172 Uber drivers, specifically highlighting difficulties enforcing data subject rights and third‑country data transfers. As Uber’s EU headquarters are in the Netherlands, the CNIL formally referred the matter to the AP. In April 2021, the AP notified Uber that it had begun an official investigation. What processing was at issue? During the proceedings, the AP reviewed and assessed transfers of sensitive personal data of Uber drivers between Uber BV ( UBV) and Uber...
Competition law issues Dynamic pricing describes a company varying its charges in response to shifting market factors, including spikes in demand. It is increasingly common across a range of industries, from hotels and airlines to Uber-style taxi services. While not inherently unlawful, it may infringe consumer protection or competition law (or the advertising rules) in particular situations. The principal legislation is the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 ( CPRUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277, which outlaws unfair commercial practices, such as misleading pricing. The CPRUTR 2008 will be repealed and replaced by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( DMCCA 2024) once the relevant provisions commence, carrying over very similar rules on unfair commercial practices. However, DMCCA 2024 grants the CMA stronger enforcement powers, increasing the risk for businesses. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 ( CRA 2015), together with the Consumer...
In this issue: New technologies Internet Data protection Media Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Telecommunications Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New technologies Draghi spurs Europe to seize ‘ AI revolution’ to regain competitiveness MLex: Mario Draghi’s much-anticipated report, setting out the political programme for the next European Commission, places strong emphasis on closing Europe’s ‘innovation gap’. The former Italian PM and ex- European central banker contends that Europe’s future competitiveness rests on re-entering the technology race with the US and China by harnessing the possibilities of artificial intelligence ( AI). See: Draghi spurs Europe to seize ‘ AI revolution’ to regain competitiveness... UK signs first legally binding international treaty on AI risks The UK has entered into the first legally binding...
The report observes that the main factor behind the widening productivity gulf between the EU and the US — which began in the mid‑1990s — is Europe’s missed chance to harness the first internet‑led digital revolution, both by founding new tech companies and by diffusing digital technologies throughout the broader economy. Spotlight on digital technologies Draghi’s analysis notes that, stripping out the tech industry, EU productivity over the last twenty years is broadly on a par with the US. However, Europe trails in the breakthrough technologies set to underpin future growth. Since 2017, about 70% of foundational AI models have originated in the US, and just three American hyperscalers capture more than 65% of the global as well as the European cloud markets, the report states. In practice, the EU cloud services market has largely slipped to US-based providers. Quantum computing is flagged as the next major wave of...
In this issue: Internet Data protection Media Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Lex Talk®TMT: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Internet Ofcom publishes evaluation of Twitch’s content classification labelling rules Ofcom has released an Economics Discussion Paper reviewing the effect of Twitch’s updated content classification labels, implemented in June 2023. The assessment indicates a notable uplift in labelling accuracy, driven by new duties on creators to apply labels where specified themes appear in streams, with sanctions for non-compliance. Ofcom’s analysis also records a drop in streams wrongly tagged as mature; however, the rules did not materially change the nature of content creators produced, nor did they lead to any significant shift in viewer behaviour. See: LNB News 02/09/2024 31. Data...
Cobban and another v Director of Public Prosecutions [2024] EWHC 1908 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? A clear separation is drawn between holders of public office (police officers exchanging messages about policing matters) and private individuals who might be prosecuted under section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003 on the basis of consensual private communications’ content Where Convention rights are engaged, a proportionality assessment is required, in line with the approach in Casserly [2024] EWCA Crim 25; 1 Cr App 18 The appellants maintained that, unless R v Collins [2006] UKHL 40; [2007] 1 WLR ( HL) is restricted to its own facts, the law would capture consensual sharing of indecent material between private persons. Lord Brown had highlighted this concern at [27] in Collins, leaving it open. The higher court sided with the DPP: officers who,...
In this issue New technologies Internet Data protection Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Reputation management Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New technologies Private lawsuits to police EU bans on unacceptable AI for first six months MLex reports that the EU has adopted the EU AI Act, a sweeping framework that governs artificial intelligence according to potential harm. One major category captures unacceptable uses, which are outlawed across the EU. These prohibitions come into force on 2 February 2025, while public enforcement will not commence until August 2025, leaving initial compliance to be tested through private litigation. See: EU’s bans on unacceptable AI uses will be left to private enforcement for first six months. Tech companies urged to obtain consent before using works to train AI systems The Society of Authors ( So A) has written to leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Meta and Google, insisting that they secure...
The rise and circulation of pornographic deepfakes, the distribution of intimate images without consent, and online sexual harassment fall most heavily on women and other marginalised communities in particular, affecting both high-profile figures such as Taylor Swift and everyday social media participants. With such conduct proliferating, the EU has signalled its resolve to curb it on digital platforms—no simple or straightforward undertaking, yet one the 27-member bloc is intent on addressing through the EU DSA. Yet the EU DSA stops short of listing particular categories of unlawful content. Accordingly, dovetailing the EU DSA with sector-specific and domestic rules is vital to counter the expanding array of illegal material online—among them the newly adopted Directive ( EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence (see: LNB News 28/05/2024 21). In force since 16 November 2022, the EU DSA targets illegal content and...
The prohibitions span manipulative practices; AI that takes advantage of people with disabilities; social scoring; some versions of predictive policing; facial-recognition repositories like Clearview AI; and biometric classification. They also extend to emotion-detection tools in schools and workplaces, and to real-time Remote Biometric Identification ( RBI) in places open to the public, save in narrowly defined situations. From February 2025, EU member states may introduce domestic rules governing these exceptional deployments of real-time RBI. However, until August 2025 there is no duty to appoint data protection regulators to supervise them. This gap is partly bridged because every law-enforcement use of real-time RBI must be reported to the relevant privacy authorities......
In this issue: New technologies Advertising, marketing and sponsorship Internet Media Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New technologies EU AI Act—is ISO 42001 a tool to achieve AI Act compliance? TMT analysis: The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act ( AI Act) took effect on 1 August 2024. After the phased implementation window finally ends, providers of AI systems—particularly those labelled ‘high‑risk AI systems’—will need to meet a broad spectrum of legal obligations in full. Standards will be among the primary tools for operationalising these duties. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partners Laura Knoke, Lutz Riede, Christoph Werkmeister and Theresa Ehlen, together with associates Philipp Roos, Verena Kirchmair and Yannick Chatard, consider whether ISO 42001 can be applied to satisfy key elements of the AI Act, and how this might work in...
Why does it matter? When customers take the time to read and grasp the terms and conditions, they are far more likely to follow them. They are also, in turn, less prone to complaining about goods and services if they understand the scope of their rights and their corresponding obligations. In addition, consumer law requires terms to be both transparent and prominent under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and regulators will obtain new enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 when it takes effect. Overall, it is a sound idea for all concerned to present clear, straightforward terms that are easy to comprehend and simple to read too. Background Terms and conditions ( T& Cs) are the contract between service providers and their users and should: set out the rules for using a product or service, together with the...
Pattinson v Winsor [2024] EWHC 1910 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling offers a clear recap of the principles for assessing whether behaviour amounts to harassment. It emphasises that communications need not be addressed to the claimant for there to be a targeted course of conduct. It also confirms that repeated, focused messaging can still be harassing even where the allegations contain a kernel of truth—though here the judge viewed the allegations against the claimant as groundless. Notably, the decision further clarifies that the Part 7 route is the proper procedure where the relief sought includes restraining publication by any means, even if the complained-of conduct is not itself a publication... What was the background? Factual background The claimant is a District Judge (in the Magistrate’s Court) and the defendant’s brother-in-law. The dispute emerged from...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
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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