Legal News

In this issue: Data protection Cybersecurity Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Data protection UK Data ( Use and Access) Bill sees first government changes on accuracy checks and open banking MLex: On 4 March 2025, the UK government introduced revisions to the Data ( Use and Access) Bill (the Bill) moving through Parliament, seemingly aimed at bolstering economic growth in digital services and open banking. Among the updates, one modification to the Bill overturned an amendment inserted by lawmakers that would have obliged the technology minister to evaluate whether public authorities are consistently checking the personal data they collect and share for use in digital verification services......

In this issue: Decision to prosecute and alternatives to prosecution Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Useful information Decision to prosecute and alternatives to prosecution SFO ruling clarifies contractual treatment of DPAs On 31 January 2025, in R v Guralp Systems Ltd, the Court of Appeal determined that the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) may ask the court to bring a deferred prosecution agreement ( DPA) to an end even after the date specified for its expiry. The...

In this issue: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act Real estate finance Debt capital markets Derivatives Technology across banking and finance transactions Restructuring Regulation for banking solicitors Scotland Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Useful information Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act Companies House announces launch for authorised agent registration service Companies House has confirmed that the registration service for authorised corporate service providers ( ACSPs) will go live on 18 March 2025, after a short delay. As part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 rollout, the service will allow trust and company service providers, together with other professional firms subject to UK anti-money laundering supervision, to become ACSPs. Once accredited, these firms will be permitted to carry out verification for clients and provide the verified...

Vento Motorcycles, Inc. v The United Mexican States COA-23- CV-1332, Court of Appeal for Ontario What are the practical implications of this case? This decision sets out a clear, principled roadmap for how courts should deploy their authority to annul a commercial or investment‑treaty award when procedural unfairness is alleged under the Model Law, with a particular emphasis on the tribunal’s independence and impartiality. Although the existence of bias itself was not contested on appeal, the judgment furnishes guidance on avoiding compromise to a tribunal’s neutrality, including the scope of an arbitrator’s disclosure obligations. The Court of Appeal affirmed that arbitrators are ‘neither representatives of the party who appointed them nor required to protect and promote that party’s interests’, and thus ‘expected to comply with the same high standards of impartiality’ regardless of who appointed them. Parties, counsel, and arbitrators should note that the...

In this issue: Tax treatment Corporate governance HMRC Manuals tracker Dates for your diary Weekly highlights from other practice areas Tax treatment HMRC’s official rate of interest rises to 3.75% Under the Taxes ( Interest Rate) ( Amendment) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/270, the generally applicable official rate increases from 2.25% to 3.75% per annum with effect from 6 April 2025. The rate is relevant when determining tax on employment-related beneficial loans, and for notional loans under Chapter 3C of Part 7 of the Income Tax ( Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 where employment-related securities are acquired for less than market value. For a full list of relevant tax and other rates, see Practice Note: Tax and other rates which are relevant to share incentives. For guidance on the beneficial loan charge, see Practice Note: Tax issues on the provision of loans to...

Background The European Green Deal remains under active negotiation and amendment, reopening debates on established sustainability rules including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ( CSRD), effective from 5 January 2023, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive ( CS3D), effective from 24 July 2024, and the EU Taxonomy Regulation. On 8 November 2024, President von der Leyen unveiled an ‘omnibus simplification package’ (the Omnibus) to rationalise these frameworks, reflecting the Draghi report’s view that streamlining could enhance EU competitiveness. The Commission’s Competitiveness Compass, released on 29 January 2025, pledged to cut reporting burdens, with a particular focus on SMEs. Further specifics followed in the 2025 Work Programme of 12 February 2025. The Omnibus itself was issued on 26 February 2025 and now proceeds through the legislative pathway... What are the key impacts of the Omnibus proposal? In this note, we flag initial...

In the matter of an application for Judicial Review by JR123 ( Appellant) ( Northern Ireland) [2025] UKSC 8 Background This appeal considers whether Northern Ireland’s arrangements for when convictions become ‘spent’, under the Rehabilitation of Offenders ( Northern Ireland) Order 1978, are compatible with the appellant’s Article 8 right to respect for private and family life in the European Convention on Human Rights ( ECHR). At the time of writing, the appellant is presently 66 years old now. In 1980, when aged 21, he was convicted of arson and of possessing a petrol bomb in suspicious circumstances. He received concurrent terms of imprisonment of five years and four years respectively, and he was released from custody in 1982. The appellant states that he is a fully rehabilitated member of society, expressing shame and regret for his offences. The respondent, the...

The limitations of (non) material contribution ( Tuffin v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust) Tuffin v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust [2024] EWHC 3318 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision supplies practical guidance for defendants contesting reliance on the ‘material contribution’ test derived from Simmons v British Steel plc [2004] UKHL 20, Bailey v Ministry of Defence [2008] EWCA Civ 883, and Williams v Bermuda Hospitals Board ( NHS Litigation Authority intervening) [2016] UKPC 4 ( Privy Council). The claimant placed weight on the recognised difficulties in identifying CRPS, and in differentiating it from DVT and its downstream symptoms. On that basis, it was said the court had to apply the ‘material contribution’ approach and conclude that DVT made a more than minimal contribution. The claimant’s difficulty, however, was that the defendant’s medical experts advanced clear, cogent...

In this issue: Trade marks/passing off Designs Patents IP and technology General IP Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Trade marks/passing off Duty of fair presentation at without notice hearings ( J& J Snack Foods v Ralph Peters & Sons) In J& J Snack Foods Corp v Ralph Peters & Sons Ltd [2025] EWHC 436 ( Ch), Mr Justice Fancourt set aside a £20m freezing order and an associated imaging order that the claimants had secured on a without notice basis. He concluded there had been shortcomings in full disclosure and fair presentation when the court granted the freezing relief ex-parte. Ruling underlines that parties seeking ex-parte measures must provide full and frank disclosure and ensure a fair presentation of the facts. Authored by Amanda Mc...

In this issue: Key developments UK immigration control: how it works Sponsored work Work sponsorship: sponsors EU law rights and EU Settlement Scheme Challenging immigration decisions and enforcement Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q& As Key developments Future developments— Immigration calendar Note that the Immigration calendar sets out key forthcoming developments for business immigration advisers. UK immigration control: how it works Immigration ( Biometric Registration) ( Civil Penalty Code of Practice) Order 2025 Made as SI 2025/262, the Immigration ( Biometric Registration) ( Civil Penalty Code of Practice) Order 2025 provides for a reissued code of practice under section 13(4) of the UK Borders Act 2007 to come into force. It also enables the draft ' Code of Practice about the sanctions for non-compliance with the biometric registration regulations' (the 2025 Code) to be laid before Parliament. Updated by the Home Office, the 2025 Code has been revised to mirror the move away from...

Young v Downey [2025] EWCA Civ 177 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision provides valuable direction on how nervous shock claims apply to child secondary victims, and examines the extent of cognisance those children must have to fall within the class of claimants able to recover. It is also of some, albeit limited, broader relevance to circumstances where people may not immediately and fully appreciate the level of danger faced by their loved ones in context. The class of claimants permitted to recover for such injuries has, traditionally, been constrained by certain ‘control mechanisms’, most clearly described in Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1991] UKHL 5 (not reported by Lexis Nexis®UK). The claimant must: witness a sudden, shocking event; which, in material terms, involves the death or injury of a sufficiently proximate loved one; and be such that a...

The Order confirms that qualifying cryptoasset staking arrangements are not considered a collective investment scheme for the purposes of section 235 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( FSMA 2000). A collective investment scheme is widely defined to capture any arrangement for managing property of any kind that allows those taking part to obtain profits or income generated by acquiring, holding, managing, or disposing of that property. Staking: an outline Before addressing the implications of the Staking Order, it is helpful to clarify cryptostaking. Broadly, it involves locking a cryptoasset within a blockchain network to help run that network—such as by validating transactions—in return for rewards paid to the owner of the staked assets. Staking is chiefly associated with proof‑of‑stake and similar blockchain consensus models. Establishing consensus over transactions and verifying them is fundamental to how a blockchain functions....

Mergers CMA launches review of merger remedies approach and publishes new mergers charter The CMA has begun a review of merger remedies together with a new mergers charter, as part of measures intended to sharpen the merger control regime’s pace, predictability, proportionality and process (4Ps), with the aim of boosting growth, stimulating investment and shoring up business confidence. It forms part of the CMA’s planned measures to improve the 4Ps within merger control so as to drive growth, investment and business confidence. A call for evidence to launch a review of merger remedies The review seeks to ensure the CMA’s approach to merger remedies fully reflects the 4Ps. The CMA is inviting evidence across three remedy themes: Approach to remedies: phase 1 remedies; the evaluation of effectiveness and proportionality; the distinction between structural and behavioural remedies; the assessment of behavioural and complex packages; and oversight through...

A lengthy review by the Civil Justice Council ( CJC) — the body advising government and the judiciary on civil justice and procedure across England and Wales — will consider whether the sector requires tighter oversight than now. It will also explore if funders’ profits ought to be limited, and whether changes in statute should be brought forward. The final report, anticipated in the summer of 2025, may trigger a profound shift across the litigation‑funding market indeed. Here, Law360 sets out the principal themes now clearly emerging. Regulation splits opinion Litigation funders currently self‑police under the Association of Litigation Funders’ code of conduct. Yet views on extending this to formal regulation remain sharply divided today. Moreover, the sector’s expanding scale, coupled with several recent high‑profile cases, has significantly heightened scrutiny. The Legal Services Board, which supervises lawyer regulation in England and Wales, proposes that the...

In a letter dated 10 March 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office said they also plan to convene industry leaders to explore obstacles stopping financial services firms from adopting AI. According to FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi and Information Commissioner Jon Edwards, a recent FCA and Bank of England survey revealed that companies and trade associations harbour worries about embracing these fast-changing technologies. They noted with interest that respondents identified data protection and the consumer duty as among the top three regulatory barriers to rolling out AI across the sector, based on the survey responses cited by Rathi and Edwards. ‘ These findings appear to demonstrate a......

Our verdict The Planning and Infrastructure Bill reached Parliament on 11 March 2025. It sits at the heart of the Labour government’s programme and aligns with its stated missions, which include kickstarting economic growth and making Britain a clean energy superpower, as well as its broader commitments to reform the planning regime to support development—including the delivery of 1.5 million new homes over the course of the current parliament. It is, by any standard, an ambitious package of legislation. However, even though many of the measures proposed are encouraging for developers, especially the reintroduction of spatial planning and the updating of National Policy Statements, significant challenges and uncertainties remain in practice, particularly concerning the sufficient and sustained resourcing of LPAs. LPAs will gain new powers to set their own planning fees, rather than rates being set nationally by the Secretary of State as is...

State aid General Court dismisses action against Commission’s decision approving measure allowing Spain and Portugal to support input costs of fossil-fuel technologies in the Iberian market The General Court has handed down its judgment in Case T-596/22, PGI Spain and Others v Commission, a challenge to the Commission’s decision of 8 June 2022 authorising a Spanish and Portuguese measure designed to bring down wholesale electricity prices in the Iberian market by reducing the input costs of fossil fuel‑fired power stations ( SA.102454) (the Commission’s 2022 decision). The General Court rejected the action. Background Against the backdrop of a sustained rise in gas prices, on 20 and 23 May 2022 Spain and Portugal, respectively, informed the Commission of their intention to adopt a measure—estimated at €6.3bn for Spain and €2.1bn for Portugal—to cut the input costs of fossil fuel‑fired power stations, with the aim of lowering their...

The European Commission has released the third version of the Code of Practice for GPAI models, intended as a key voluntary instrument enabling firms such as Google and Open AI to show alignment with the EU AI Act. Stakeholders in the talks have until 30 March 2025 to submit written comments, before a fourth and final draft that is anticipated to carry only relatively modest adjustments. See: LNB News 11/03/2025 62. Independent experts steering the Code have altered course from the previous edition, removing the key performance indicators that were designed to evidence compliance with the various commitments. The updated draft acknowledges that the Code should be read alongside guidance to be issued by the Commission’s AI Office, and also states that signatories will be expected to provide regular reports to the Commission on how the Code is being...

What is the failure to prevent fraud offence? The FTPF offence arises where a large organisation gains from fraud carried out by its associated persons. The entity may incur liability if an associated person commits a specified fraud offence intending to benefit the organisation, whether that benefit is obtained directly or indirectly. A 'large organisation' is defined by reference to three size tests; it qualifies if at least two are met: (1) more than 250 employees (2) more than £36m turnover (3) more than £18m in total assets An 'associated person' broadly includes anyone who provides services for or on behalf of the relevant organisation, such as officers, directors, employees and agents, together with subsidiaries and employees of subsidiaries. Under the new offence, an organisation can be liable—and face an unlimited fine—for a wide range of fraud offences, including fraudulent...

The High Court, in a preliminary judgment delivered on 7 March 2025, held that it remains premature to decide with any certainty whether the behaviour of the French police during the episode triggers the rule that English courts refrain from scrutinising the lawfulness of acts by foreign states. Judge Mark Turner indicated he was willing to accept that at least some elements of the French response, via senior officials, could constitute acts of state. However, he dismissed European football’s governing body’s contention that every deed carried out by an operative under state authority necessarily falls within that doctrine. The ruling states that, given the current, incomplete pleadings and evidence, it is not possible with confidence at this time to fully determine which, if any, of these acts are caught by the doctrine......