Legal News

Mergers The Commission authorised: the purchase of joint control over Fjord 1 AS by Electricité de France DIF Management B. V. ( M.11363), following a phase I investigation—see more in Midday Express the purchase of joint control of Wittur International Holding Gmb H by Franklin Square Holdings L. P.......

Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon UK, said data from the Office for National Statistics ( ONS), released on 11 January 2024, revealing numbers of people aged over 100 in England and Wales, painted a 'fascinating picture' of longevity higher than before. According to the ONS figures released on 11 January 2024, the count of centenarians has more than doubled since 2002, with an estimated 15,120 people in England and Wales in 2022. The estimated population in the two nations aged 90 and above rose by 2.1% compared with 2021, reaching its highest total to date of more than 550,000 individuals, the figures show......

The responsibility of the gazettes' publishers as data controllers The EU Court of Justice held that publishers of official gazettes act as data controllers determining the purposes and means of processing, and that this duty applies irrespective of their legal status or any obligation to republish. A national gazette has sole responsibility for meeting the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, unless national rules establish joint responsibility. Under the EU GDPR, several controllers can share responsibility for processing personal data. From the material before it, the court concluded that Belgian law had, at least implicitly, set the objectives and methods for the Moniteur Belge’s processing of personal data, thereby qualifying the gazette as a controller within the meaning of Article 4(7) GDPR. The reference arose from the Belgian Court of Appeal, which sought guidance on overall...

On 11 January 2024, the firm reported advising on an insurance framework that channels designated funds into accounts at two Ukrainian state lenders, Ukrgasbank and Ukreximbank, allowing them to issue irrevocable letters of credit. Each letter will be confirmed and guaranteed by Germany’s DZ Bank AG. The structure provides risk cover to shipowners and charterers moving cargo across the Black Sea, the sea between Europe and Asia bordered by states such as Russia and Ukraine. It also streamlines repayment to underwriters should claim settlements be required, supporting efficient handling of payments. It also enables underwriter reimbursement when claims require payment......

Aston Martin MENA Ltd v Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd [2023] EWHC 3285 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers clear, detailed guidance on: construing competing readings of commercial contracts, and the extent and substance of express and implied duties of good faith Commercial lawyers should resist any analysis that isolates a single provision. The court undertook a meticulous review of each clause alongside the relevant definitions and related provisions to ascertain the parties’ true shared intention, particularly where ambiguity arose. As for implied terms grounded in business efficacy or good faith, the governing yardstick remains the test in Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Co ( Jersey) Ltd [2015] UKSC 72. In a professionally drafted commercial contract, a term will not be implied unless it is both necessary and obvious to achieve...

the Ali Abdullah Ali Alesayi Will Establishment v Alesayi [2023] EWHC 3150 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling reaffirms the court’s method when assessing whether a party has standing to advance proceedings on behalf of a deceased person’s estate. The distinction between an executor and an administrator The action might have been issued by an executor; however, the claimant was not identified in the Proof of Will, so it could not act as executor. Acting instead as administrator, the claimant needed an English grant of representation to possess the necessary locus to commence the claim. Claims by legal entities treated the same as claims brought by individuals The claimant company had been formed as the ‘parent holding entity’ to receive assets transferred under the deceased’s Proof of Will. The court determined that bringing the claim through a corporate vehicle, rather than a natural...

In a letter to the Work and Pensions Committee, released on 10 January 2024, the Pensions Regulator ( TPR) indicated there may need to be an automatic allowance, under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations ( PECR), for communications issued by pension schemes. As things stand, the rules prevent companies from sending marketing emails to prospective customers unless those individuals have agreed to receive them. Firms can, however, email existing customers about additional deals, provided they have been offered an opportunity to opt out; this practice is commonly called a 'soft opt-in'. TPR said pension schemes were worried that today’s privacy regime could stop them from complying with new draft regulations, which will require them to present savers with different options......

Original news Mr S ( CAS-92093- N4D9)—29 August 2023 Summary The PO dismissed a grievance concerning the distribution of a full pension scheme surplus, on winding-up, to the employers. The trustee had followed the rules properly, weighed all relevant and material considerations and did not arrive at an irrational outcome. The PO’s decision underlines that overturning a trustee’s discretionary decision has a very high threshold. Accordingly, the complaint was not upheld by the Ombudsman in full What were the facts? Mr S belonged to the Bristol Water plc segregated section of the Water Companies Pension Scheme (the Scheme). Under the Scheme rules, the trustee had a discretion to use any surplus arising on a winding-up to enhance members’ benefits, with any remainder to be returned to the employers......

The case for reform Major infrastructure delivery has occupied significant government attention in recent years, with a range of action plans, strategies, policies, roadmaps and consultations diagnosing obstacles to delivery and setting out ways to overcome them. The government’s most recent infrastructure policy, published in November 2023, ‘ Getting Great Britain building again: Speeding up infrastructure delivery’, makes the case for additional planning reforms, accompanied by some new announcements. A recurring thread of earlier infrastructure policy, and a long-standing critique of the planning system, is that planning is too slow, too bureaucratic and too uncertain. Previous policy has presented various actions and proposals intended to address these concerns. This latest policy paper echoes those themes, but contends that further reform is required at every step of the planning process to deliver the government’s infrastructure objectives—both in the short term, to progress already...

Mergers The CMA has begun its phase 1 review and opened an invitation to comment on the anticipated purchase by T& L Sugars Limited of the UK packing and distribution site and business‑to‑consumer operations of Tereos United Kingdom and Ireland Limited from Tereos SCA; for more detail, see the case page. NOTE— For the full roster of live mergers before the CMA, see the UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker. Subsidy control The Subsidy Advice Unit has released its final report to Belfast City Council regarding a proposed subsidy for the Mourne Mountain Gateway Project; see the final report. NOTE— For all decisions referred to the Subsidy Advice Unit under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, consult the UK subsidy control—cases tracker. Upcoming dates For dates of forthcoming UK competition developments, see the UK Competition calendar......

A three-judge bench of the Ninth Circuit, in a published ruling, held that Spain’s state-run Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection is the rightful owner of the painting ‘ Rue Saint- Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie’, a 19th-century piece by the French Impressionist Camille Pissarro, reportedly valued in the tens of millions of dollars. The bench found that, under Spanish law, the museum had acquired title by prescription because it bought the work without knowledge of the theft and possessed it for a sufficient period to obtain ownership, thereby meeting the requirements for acquisitive possession under that legal system. The outcome marks a setback for the California claimant who brought the suit nearly twenty years ago — David Cassirer, great-grandson of Holocaust survivor Lilly Neubauer, from whom the painting was taken as she fled Germany in 1939 — and follows almost two years after the US...

Jump to: Brexit SIs and sifting updates Made Brexit SIs laid in Parliament Draft Brexit SIs laid in Parliament Draft Brexit SIs laid for sifting and sifting committee recommendations Post- Brexit transition guidance Editor’s picks—the practice area/sector view New and updated Brexit related content Lex Talk®Brexit: a Lexis®Nexis community Useful information Brexit SIs and sifting updates Here you will find the latest final and draft Brexit SIs presented to Parliament, together with updates on proposed negative SIs submitted for sifting. Made Brexit SIs laid in Parliament Data Protection ( Fundamental Rights and Freedoms) ( Amendment) Regulations 2023 SI 2023/1417: Made using powers in the Retained EU Law ( Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 ( REUL( RR) A 2023) in the context of Brexit. These Regulations alter one item of UK primary legislation and one piece of...

Lawyers and legal academics have warned that the government plans to enact speedy justice for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal risk usurping the judicial function of the courts in deciding guilt. Emergency legislation to be sped through Parliament will overturn the convictions of hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted on the basis of misleading Horizon computer evidence between 1999 and 2015. Public clamour for rapid justice has mounted further since the ITV dramatisation of the saga, ' Mr. Bates vs the Post Office', rekindled criticism that only a small proportion of the wrongful convictions had been quashed on appeal. However, lawyers and commentators caution that the government’s push for haste is exceptional and misaligned with UK constitutional principles. Steve Foster, a professor who has taught public law at Coventry University in Central England for 46 years, argued that by setting aside the...

Funds intended to compensate more than 200 victims were recovered from convicted fraudster Jeffrey Revell- Reade after the sale of his waterfront property in Sydney, Australia, on 10 January 2024, according to the SFO. The Australian national was handed a prison term of over nine years in 2014, having been found guilty of cheating investors out of £70m through the sale of worthless shares. In 2018, a judge added a further four years to his sentence when he failed to pay in full a £7.5m confiscation order......

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the Exchequer, and Bim Afolami, the Treasury’s economic secretary, met on 9 January 2024 with banking chiefs and asset management leaders to explore ways to unlock business finance, according to the Treasury. The financial sector attendees, whose names were not disclosed, discussed with the ministers how to lift the volume of listings on the LSE. A Treasury spokesperson told Law360 that the economic secretary stressed the importance of delivering the Edinburgh Reforms, which will turbocharge growth in the UK’s capital markets, by streamlining the listings process and cementing the country’s status as a leading global capital markets destination......

Insurance & Reinsurance weekly highlights—11 January 2024 In this issue: Ukraine conflict Cases and decisions Types of insurance Market practice Regulation New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Ukraine conflict Aviation claims The conflict in Ukraine has profoundly disrupted the aviation insurance sector. Attention has centred on claims under aviation policies, as lessors attempt to recoup losses for aircraft that remain in Russia (typically still controlled and operated by Russian carriers). Consequently, numerous proceedings have been commenced before the courts in England, the US, and Ireland. For more detail, see Practice Note: Ukraine conflict—aviation insurance claims, which addresses the principal areas of contention under these policies. It also highlights further issues for claims under primary policies and...

Alongside the items featured in full in the Financial Services news feed on 11 January 2024, subscribers may wish to note these further developments: FCA: Decision Notice: Wilson Motors Limited Liability Partnership Decision Notice: Fintry Motors Ltd Decision Notice: Rashid Akhtar (trading as United Commercial Trading) Short positions disclosed to us HM Treasury: Three members reappointed to the Prudential Regulation Committee Notice, ISIL ( Da’esh) and Al- Qaida, 11/01/2024 European Parliament: DRAFT REPORT on the proposal for a...

PI & Clinical Negligence weekly highlights—11 January 2024 In this issue: Supreme Court decision in Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Road traffic accidents Employers’ liability Occupiers’ liability Abuse and criminal injuries Fraud and fundamental dishonesty Regulation of healthcare professionals Brexit Useful information Daily and weekly news alerts Supreme Court decision in Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust The Supreme Court has delivered its Judgment in Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2024] UKSC 1, addressing whether a person may recover for psychiatric harm after observing the death or another shocking event involving a close relative resulting from earlier clinical negligence. By a six-to-one majority, the court determined that, whilst doctors owe a duty of care to protect their patients’ health, they do not owe a duty to close family members to guard them from illness arising from witnessing a relative’s death or medical crisis caused by a condition...

Bathgate v Technip Singapore PTE [2023] CSIH 48 What are the practical implications of this case? For a considerable period there has been real doubt about whether prospective claims that an employee may later have against an employer, but which have not yet materialised, can, with sufficiently precise language, be validly released within a settlement agreement. Conflicting EAT authorities emerged, with: Lady Smith in Hilton UK Hotels v Mc Naughton holding that future claims were capable of compromise, and Lord Summers in this case ( Bathgate) concluding they were not. There was also a lack of agreement as to how far the Court of Appeal’s decision in Hinton supported either viewpoint. In Mc Naughton, Smith LJ cited Howard as authority that the parties may agree that a statutory compromise agreement (now settlement agreement) should cover future claims of which an employee did not and could not have had...

In this issue: Anti-dumping WTO Sanctions and export control Customs Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Anti-dumping TRA investigates SPVC imports from the USA The TRA has begun an inquiry into imports of SPVC from the USA, prompted by an application from INOVYN Chlor Vinyls Ltd. SPVC is employed in the manufacture of a broad range of goods, such as medical products, water pipes, window frames, food packaging, bottles and cable insulation. The review will assess whether SPVC is being dumped in the UK and whether this is harming INOVYN Chlor Vinyls Ltd’s business and the wider UK industry. Should the TRA advise that a remedy is required, an Economic Interest Test would then be carried out. See: LNB News 09/01/2024 16... WTO Madagascar initiates safeguard investigation on polypropylene woven sheaths and...